Reason and Infallibility

In the previous posting on this subject, we went into the various ways that popes prior to Leo XIII and Rerum Novarum tried to counter socialism and moral relativism.  The bottom line here, of course, is that trying to educate people in sound philosophy and democratic political principles wasn’t going anywhere without the personal power in the hands of ordinary people who remained at the mercy of those who controlled property and thus political and economic power.  When someone controls how you are allowed to live, they soon make great inroads into how you think or believe.

The Frustrated Reformer

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, when economic, political, social and even religious conditions deteriorated badly in the early nineteenth century, people turned to socialism to make things rights again.  Unfortunately, people didn’t want to hear why something they wanted was wrong, they wanted something that would help them immediately.

The Pope Condemns the New Things

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the circumstances that resulted in the first social encyclical, Mirari Vos, in 1832.  It turns out that Pope Gregory XVI condemned the Polish November Uprising of 1830-1831 because it was taken over by the socialists and a forged encyclical had been circulated calling on people to rise up and destroy the Church and abolish private property.

JTW Podcast: The Political Animal

This week we feature the latest video in the series on economic personalism, the book for which can be purchased or downloaded free from the CESJ website.  According to the host, this has proven to be one of Sensus Fidelium’s most popular series, despite the fact that it is an interfaith presentation on a Catholic network!:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 19

We have quite a few interesting news items this week, not all of which are calculated to give anyone confidence in the current system.  The manufactured “gas shortage” right now is, in fact, a vote of “no confidence” in the economic and political system that our leaders in government and Academia might want to pay attention to . . . .

What Happened in Poland

History, as they say, is written by the victors.  The problem with history-as-she-is-taught these days is that what passes for history sadly seems to fit that rather glib aphorism, especially when the subject is politics and religion, which pretty much sums up virtually the whole of history.

The Renegade Abbé

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the “theory of certitude” led its developer, Félicité de Lamennais straight into modernism and socialism.  That is why Charles Perín believed him to be the first modernist, although that is a somewhat dubious honor.  It also explains why Pope Gregory XVI, who is generally regarded by liberals and radicals of both a religious and non-religious stripe as a reactionary monster, was actually concerned about the effect that de Lamennais’s theories would have — and were having — on the meaning of Christianity and even religion itself.

Faith OR Reason, or Faith AND Reason?

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, at the heart of the “new things” of which Pope Gregory XVI and Pope Leo XIII spoke is something called “the theory of certitude” developed by Félicité de Lamennais, and is the foundation of “Christian socialism.”

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler and Socrates

Remember the Bad Old Days when television was the Vast Wasteland, not like today’s fine educational programing and reality TV?  Today we return to those boring days of yesteryear.  On this week’s podcast we again have Mortimer J. Adler talking philosophy and philosophers, or (to be precise), one philosopher, Socrates:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 18

We have some interesting news items this week . . . if by “interesting” you mean completely baffling.  From the perspective of the Just Third Way, many of the problems that people are trying to solve by doing failed programs more intensively (and expensively) can be solved with ease with the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.  Maybe it’s time to consider it:

What is the “Theory of Certitude”?

 When we last wrote on this subject (yesterday), we introduced (again) the “unhealthy, unkempt little bourgeois,” l’Abbé Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais, whom Charles Périn, a professor at the University of Louvain who appears to have been the first to define modernism in today’s Catholic sense, regarded as the first modernist. (Le Modernisme dans l’Église d’après les lettres inédites de Lamennais, Paris, 1881.)

The “Unhealthy, Unkempt Little Bourgeois”

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, it was pretty obvious from the very beginning that in most cases what became known as socialism was being presented as an alternative to traditional Christianity.  The problem was with those that, intending to or not, concealed the socialism under the guise of orthodoxy.  This was the case with l’Abbé Hugues-Félicité Robert de Lamennais.

The Religion of Humanity

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, socialism did not start out as opposed to capitalism, but as an alternative to traditional Christianity, especially Catholicism.  Making today’s de facto surrender to socialism supremely ironic, this has been recognized from the very beginning of the establishment of the Catholic Church’s social doctrine as a distinct field of study.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler and Mike Wallace

On this week’s podcast we have Mortimer J. Adler’s appearance on ABC’s The Fund for the Republic with Mike Wallace that aired on September 7, 1958.  Significantly, this was eight months after the publication of The Capitalist Manifesto in which Adler and Louis Kelso presented the case for expanded capital ownership as a fundamental human right:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 17

The various communications media keep touting “the recovery” and the fantastic “economic growth” . . . and at the same time insist on the need for raising the minimum wage, family assistance, Universal Basic Income, a Great Reset, Inclusive Capitalism, Democratic Socialism, and so on, because individuals and families just aren’t making it.  Why aren’t they calling for economic personalism so that everyone can participate in growth instead of trying to figure out more creative ways of redistributing what others produce?.

The Democratic Religion

 

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by noting that the way the “new things” of modernism and socialism developed  was far more fantastic, even shocking than was depicted in Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson’s apocalyptic science fiction satire Lord of the World published in the early twentieth century.

A New Look at R. H. Benson’s “Lord of the World”

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by asking the question how, if socialism and modernism (which doesn’t mean modernity) are so anti-human or contrary to human nature, how on Earth did they become so popular?  Let’s begin by taking a look at a novel from the beginning of the last century that a lot of people think they know something about, but usually don’t.

A Short Treatise on Sovereignty

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, the political doctrine that all government revenue should come only from taxation is based on the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the human person.  Whoever pays the costs of government controls government, unless politicians can figure out a way to hide the fact of who is really paying, as is the case when the government can create money.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso and Harold Channer Show (No. 3)

Last week we featured another interview of Louis Kelso  on the Harold Channer Show.  This week we have another Channer-Kelso interview, but add a twist: Abraham Henry “AH” Raskin of the New York Times:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 16

The stock market, of course, is soaring, having “recovered” from the concern of President Biden’s tax proposals, and the economy is again in full recovery mode . . . whatever that means.  Evidently a rising stock market is considered a leading economic indicator, when properly speaking it isn’t an indicator of anything except the price of used debt and equity.  What is really needed in this country and the world is a focus on productive activity that everyone can engage in, not fake production of gambling and speculation.

Getting Real About Money

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, turning control of money and credit to the State does not seem to have been a good idea — ever.  In the crudest sense, it separates the people who produce from the benefits of production, mainly consumption.  This undermines the first principle of economics as stated by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations: “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.”

The Past Savings Paradox

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at some of the discrepancies and contradictions in Keynesian economics.  Today we take a look at what may be the single biggest problem with the economics of the architect of the New Deal.

The Economic Crimes of David Ricardo

As we closed the previous posting on this subject, we noted that David Ricardo “corrected” Adam Smith by declaring that labor alone is productive and gives value to something.  Things are not to be valued for their utility to the consumer, but in terms of what it cost in labor to produce it.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso and Harold Channer Show (No. 2)

Last week we featured an interview of Louis Kelso  on the Harold Channger Show.  This week we have another Channer-Kelso interview:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 15

More and more, it seems as if people and policymakers are avoiding coming to grips with what is really needed in today’s world: a way that will allow most people to lead productive and virtuous lives (however they might define virtue in their particular philosophical or religious framework) without having to depend on the rich or the State to provide for or secure their every need.  Why not a world in which everyone can be productive with capital, labor, or both?

From Need to Greed

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that usury has become so embedded in our economic thinking that it’s accepted as normal.  Paradoxically, some proposals to abolish usury are themselves usurious, e.g., the government should simply issue the money it needs and abolish taxes.  It’s accepted as normal for a government to back its own currency with its own debt and constantly change the value.

On Usury

In the previous posting on this subject, we noted that it seems to be a part of human nature that people like to be useful and engage in productive activity.  The Great Reset and similar proposals, however, appear to be far more concerned with meeting people’s material needs by any means necessary, with no attention paid to whether or people become productive and useful.

On Utility

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, it is not enough, even in materialist terms, just to see that people have enough to ensure their material wellbeing.  Human beings also want to be useful and productive.

JTW Podcast: Louis Kelso on the Harold Channer Show

Last week we featured an interview of Dr. Robert H.A. Ashford of the University of Syracuse School of Law on binary economics.  This week we have something even better: another interview from the Harold Channer Show, but this one is with the “Father of Binary Economics,” Louis O. Kelso:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 14

Most of the world seems to be spinning its wheels trying to figure out how to turn the old abnormal into the new normal, when the pandemic has revealed the cracks in the system that prevent the new normal from being any better than the old abnormal. . . .

Property, Power and Production

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked briefly at the “Great Reset” and similar proposals and contrasted them with the demands of human dignity.  The basic idea seems to be that everyone should have “enough,” and that the system should be reorganized to provide it.  As far as many people today are concerned, the main problem is how to get what people need directly into the hands of the people who need it.

The Demands of Human Dignity

All things, as Aristotle said in the beginning of the Nichomachean Ethics, seek the good.  If someone seeks evil, it is because he either has the wrong idea of what is good, or is trying to avoid a greater evil.  The former is called a badly formed conscience and must be corrected through education and example.

Financing Future Growth

We closed the previous posting on this subject by noting that while expanded capital ownership can restore Say’s Law of Markets and poke Keynesian economics and its unresolved paradoxes in the eye with a sharp stick, there was a problem.  It is itself a seeming paradox — or at least ironic — that the people who most need to become capital owners are the least likely to be able to afford it.

JTW Podcast: Robert Ashford on Binary Economics

This week we have a talk on binary economics straight from the expert’s mouth.  Dr. Ashford is not only a professor of law at Syracuse University, he is the author (with Rodney Shakespeare) of Binary Economics: the New Paradigm:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 13

What may be a quantum leap in implementing a demonstration in the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism has occurred in Missouri, and can pave the way to break out of the inherently unjust and financially irresponsible Keynesian wage and welfare system.  In contrast, the guaranteed income proposals being implemented as pilot programs across the country, such as the one in Oakland, California (below) ultimately end up being ways to try and make a failed system work:

The Principle of Binary Growth

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the basis of a just economy is for production and consumption to be in balance.  This necessarily implies that every consumer must be a producer, and that every producer must be a consumer.  Further, every consumer should produce what he or she consumes, and every producer should consume what he or she produces.

Say’s Law: Balancing the Economy

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the concept of “productiveness,” that is, the idea that both labor and capital contribute to production as interdependent factors of production.  Further, the concept of productiveness includes the assumption that the ratio between the two can be measured.  Not that it is measured, just that it can be measured.

A Few Questions

As we may have mentioned once or twice, we like to get questions, if only because it saves us the labor of trying to think up ones ourselves.  The other day we got three questions that, slightly edited, we’ll post on today’s blog:  We were asked,

JTW Podcast: Blast from the Past, Walter Reuther

 

For years we’ve been referencing UAW President Walter Reuther’s testimony before Congress on the Kelso ideas in the late 1960s.  We recently came across an interview Reuther gave to Mike Wallace on January 25, 1958, by coincidence the same time Kelso and Adler’s The Capitalist Manifesto came out.  In the interview, which was posted on YouTube in two parts, Reuther doesn’t bring in ownership, but the analysis he gave — as an analysis — is very close to that of Kelso:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 12

For some reason, the postings on Justice University topics over the past week or so have proved to be astonishingly popular, especially one that brought in a rather esoteric subject, viz., what defines human beings as human beings.  Another unusual event this week was discovering a “long lost” (or at least unknown to us) video of an interview Mike Wallace had with Walter Reuther . . . in between puffs on his Parliament cigarette, anyway:

Productiveness v. Productivity

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the necessity for everyone who participates in economic life — as everyone must do in some manner or material wants and needs will go unfilled — to be able to employ both labor and capital to become a productive and contributing member of society.

The Two Factors of Production

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at a few things that make up “the binary difference”: the three principles of economic justice (participation, distribution, and social justice), and the four pillars of an economically just society (limited economic role for the State, free and open markets, restoration of private property, and expanded capital ownership).

The Binary Difference

Discussing the factors of production in economics is one thing.  Discussing them in the field of political economy is quite another.  Common sense, of course, tells us that there is no difference between economics as such, and political economy as such, and in fact some dictionaries use the same definition for both “economics” and “political economy.”

JTW Podcast: Economic Personalism, Human Dignity

In today’s podcast, the fifth in the series based on the book, Economic Personalism. , we take a look at what we mean by the term “human dignity.” It’s entirely possible that the answer might surprise you:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 11

Most of what is happening in the world still reflects continuing confusion over what to do about the economic, civil and political chaos ostensibly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  Unfortunately, what obscures the real problems and thus developing a solution is the failure to realize that the roots of the problem go back a few centuries earlier than the pandemic and have been building up for some time.  The so-called “new normal” is no more adequate than the “old normal” when it comes to respecting the dignity of every child, woman, and man.  What is needed is a complete restructuring of the social order in conformity with the principles of the Just Third Way, not a “Great Reset”:

Corporatism versus Distributism

In “Do We Agree?”, their final debate in 1927, Gilbert Keith Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw — immoderately moderated by Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (“I am here to sneer”) — once again presented the things on which they couldn’t agree.

6. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Thinking In Systems

In the previous posting on this subject we concluded our discussion of the “problem” of advancing technology and the presumed inability of those without capital ownership can never be owners.  The solution, of course, is to make everyone potentially “creditworthy,” and use money and credit properly to turn every child, woman and man into a capital owner by qualifying them to purchase self-liquidating capital, i.e., that pays for itself out of future profits.

5. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Financing the Future

In the previous posting on this subject we looked at the “problem” of advancing technology and the various responses that have been developed, which boil down to rejecting technology, or redistributing what belongs to others, whether the technology itself, or what it produces.  We closed by suggesting that envy and greed are not exactly optimal for anybody, and that perhaps we should be looking at justice — which is the response we will look at today.

JTW Podcast: Economic Personalism, Something Missing

 

This week’s video podcast continues the series based on the book, Economic Personalism.  This week we cover the second chapter in the book, “Something Missing.”  And what’s missing?  A correct understanding of distributive justice, social justice, money and credit . . . and that’s just the beginning:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 10

This week’s news items reflect the almost complete disconnect between production and consumption, and thus between producers and consumers, throughout the world.  In accordance with Say’s Law of Markets, consumption should equal production, since Adam Smith’s first principle of economics is that “Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.”  When people produce far more than they can consume, and others can’t produce at all, then the obvious solution is to turn everyone into a producer, and that means expanded capital ownership:

4. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Technology

We now come to the fourth of the roadblocks to social justice: the effect of advancing technology.

Not to belabor the point, but as we stated in the previous posting on this subject, there are five situations that need to be addressed if we are to carry out a restructuring the social order.  Again, there may be more, but these are the ones we think are key to carry out a just, effective, and sustainable restructuring of the social order:

3. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Monetary Theory

 

As we again stated in the previous posting on this subject, five situations need to be addressed in order to carry out a program of restructuring the social order.  As we noted, there may be more, but these are the ones we think are key to carry out a just, effective, and sustainable restructuring of the social order:

2. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Savings

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, there are five situations that need to be addressed in order to carry out a program of restructuring the social order.  While there may be more — even many more — we think these are the key institutions that need to be targeted first in order to carry out a just, effective, and sustainable restructuring:

JTW Podcast: Economic Personalism, The Question of the Person

Last week’s video podcast introduced this series based on the book, Economic Personalism.  This week we cover the first chapter in the book, “The Question of the Person.”  This is an important point, especially since so many people today do not grasp the fact that only human beings are natural persons, meaning we have rights by nature, not by grant, and not even the United States Supreme Court can really say otherwise:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 09

Today’s news notes may require a caveat.  CESJ is not, as an organization, either “pro-life” or “pro-choice.”  Members and supporters make up their own minds and are free to do so.  Many people in CESJ, however, are of the opinion that any government that adopts the Economic Democracy Act would also remove any economic justification or excuse for abortion.  Many people in CESJ also believe (with some vocal dissenters) that using government money to support abortion violates the “social contract” between citizens and their government.  With that in mind, some of the news items explain how — using abortion funding as one example — private organizations and government can “hide” money they don’t want to account for::

1. Five Roadblocks to Social Justice: Social Justice!

      As a slight change of pace (although not very much of one), we thought we’d address some basic concepts and principles that stand in the way of carrying out acts of social justice instead of simply talking about situations that need to be addressed through acts of social justice.  Of course, paradoxically, these “Five Roadblocks to Social Justice” are things that need to be addressed by acts of social justice, with the first being social justice itself!

Are All Things Lawful to the Elect?

In his book, Enthusiasm (1950), Monsignor Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (1888-1957) noted what he called the “ultrasupernaturalist” or enthusiastic tendency to subordinate everything, especially the precepts of the natural law, to one’s desires and personal interpretation of something accepted as God’s Will . . . or one’s personal will, if he or she happens to be a self-contained deity.

Two Modern Problems

Be warned: today’s posting gets into philosophy, which we define as “the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.”  Having a philosophy means that you have some framework for understanding what you know (why you know something), what’s real and what’s not real, and whether or not you exist.  Not caring about these things is as much a philosophy as discussing them at great length.

JTW Podcast: Economic Personalism, Introduction

In something of a change of pace, this week’s video begins a series based on the new book, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, which can be purchased or downloaded free by following the link.  This week we have an introduction to the subject:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 08

Another week has gone by with the world enslaved to the Keynesian concept of the absolute necessity of past savings to finance new capital formation and economic growth, and the related Keynesian idea that to stimulate consumer demand you need to flood the world with fiat money backed only by government debt.  And the result?  Little actual capital formation, spreading poverty, and massive government debt.  Is there a better way?  Yes.  The Economic Democracy Act.  In the meantime:

Interpreting the Goals of the Great Reset

Whether or not anyone realizes it, everyone has a philosophy of some sort.  To understand the Great Reset, it is essential to know the philosophy behind it.

“All Products Will Have Become Services”

Analyzing the Great Reset is made more difficult by the fact that, like Pope Saint Pius X’s comment about modernism, it is presented “without order and systematic arrangement” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, § 4) in a loose, even chaotic manner.  Rhetoric plays to the emotions, and goals are stated in vague terms that leave far too much to personal interpretation and imagination on the part of both adherents and opponents.

Goals of the Great Reset

Individuals and groups promoting the Great Reset appear to be motivated by a genuine concern for the future of humanity and of the planet.  In our experience, however, that simply adds to the seriousness of the problem.  It shifts the basis of argument away from knowledge and reason based on the intellect, to opinion and faith based on the will.

JTW Podcast: Church Militant, The Great Reset

This week’s video podcast contains material with which we may not agree, and that CESJ cannot as a non-political/interfaith 501(c)(3) in any way endorse or promote, but the sections on private property are both useful and informative — this is an "informational" not an "advisory" video.  The mention of Fulton Sheen is also interesting:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 07

Although things may seem pretty dark at the moment, some good things are happening . . . if we stop to take a look:

Minimum Wage and the Role of the State

     A few days ago in a “distributist” forum on FaceBook, someone posted a link to an article in Newsweek about fast food workers calling for a nation-wide strike to get a $15.00 minimum wage, “I Work at McDonald’s, Risking My Life Every Day. Don’t Thank Me. Pass a $15 Minimum Wage/Opinion.”

The Best Form of Government

     Possibly as a result of some people in the “distributist community” deciding on a name change for the concept (from “distributism” to “localism”), we recently got a question regarding the form of government that best conforms to the distributist ideal.  For reasons that we hope will become obvious, we won’t address whether the name change was good, bad, or indifferent.

The New Christianity and the Great Reset

     As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the “new things” (rerum novarum) of socialism and modernism were not merely a new religion.  They constituted a new idea of what religion should be: rejection of what Pope Pius XI would later (misleadingly) call “the Reign of Christ the King” in favor of creating the perfect life here in this life, “the Kingdom of God on Earth.”

JTW Podcast: The Just Third Way with Norman Kurland

This week’s video podcast is a slight change of pace: Steve Cunningham interviews Norman Kurland and they discuss the Just Third Way:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 06

In a not unexpected development, the Biden administration is rushing headlong into pumping money into the economy, thereby making a bad situation worse and creating a spiral that requires continuous emergency measures that never normalize the situation.  Even the much-touted calls for “unity” seem to redefine the term as submission to injustice for the sake of order and peace instead of a genuine development of solidarity:

Appearances Can Deceive

At first it was touted as David versus Goliath — the “GameStop Mania,” which bore a striking resemblance to a number of other events in history chronicled by Charles MacKay in his 1841 classic, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.  The price of the shares of a company pretty much off the map was bid up and down in a speculative frenzy ostensibly intended to teach the Big Money Wall Street Élite (BMWSE) a lesson in humility.

A New Idea of Religion

In the previous posting on this subject, we saw how “the theory of certitude” — essentially a variation on Neo-Platonism (bet you never thought you’d see that term in a blog posting) — gave many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, a very wrong and even contradictory understanding of “papal infallibility.”  By assuming the pope has the power to create new truth in all areas instead of discerning existing truth restricted to faith and morals, Félicité de Lamennais and subsequent modernists (both reactionary and radical) set up a Catch-22 for themselves.

The Wrong Idea of Infallibility

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, Félicité de Lamennais dismissed individual reason and claimed that truth resides only in the general reason as the result of direct revelation from God.  Consequently, something is true because someone believes it; it is not believed because it is true.  This requires a central religious authority — the pope — to determine truth and communicate it to believers.

JTW Podcast: A Meeting with Pope Francis

This week’s video podcast is the fourth and final installment of a four-part series on “Economic Personalism versus The Great Reset”.  Again, this is loosely related to the book, Economic Personalism, but it is more in the nature of a somewhat informal conversation about applying the principles of economic personalism to a specific situation.  Today we look at what we’d like to say to Pope Francis if we happen to have a meeting with him any time soon:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 05

Things continue to move forward surprisingly well, despite some bad news we received this week::

Félicité de Lamennais and the “Theory of Certitude”

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, l’abbe Hugues Félicité Robert de Lamennais and two friends, Charles Forbes René de Montalembert and Jean-Baptiste Henri Dominique Lacordaire, calling themselves “the Pilgrims of God and Liberty” had gone to Rome in the early months of the pontificate of Gregory XVI to meet with him and get a papal endorsement of their activities.

The Pilgrims of God and Liberty

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, contrary to the common sense approach that the common good should be structured so that people can meet their own needs through their own efforts, the principle of the New Christian Prophet Henri de Saint-Simon was that the whole of society should be dedicated to taking care of people, that simply because they exist, people have an absolute right to everything they need, and sometimes what they want . . . which effectively abolishes private property in both labor and capital.

“An Excess of Charity”

In working to advance the cause of human dignity and understanding of social justice, it has become increasingly clear over the past several decades (yes, decades) not only that people are a little unclear as to the meaning of human dignity and social justice, they are also more than a little vague about what constitutes charity and justice . . . without which respect for human dignity is only so much noise.

JTW Podcast: Paying the Piper

This week’s video podcast is the third installment of a four-part series on “Economic Personalism versus The Great Reset”.  While this is loosely related to the book, Economic Personalism, it is more in the nature of a somewhat informal conversation about applying the principles of economic personalism to a specific situation.  Today we look at why who pays for something has the right to control it.

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 04

Despite the sad state of the economy and the efforts of today’s politicians to cut each other’s throats instead of the deficit, there are a number of good things happening:

Joseph Pearce Again Disappoints

This past Tuesday (January 26, 2021), Mr.* Joseph Pearce presented the second half of a talk on G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man (1925).  The talk, given under the aegis of the Institute of Catholic Culture, was sponsored by Christendom College.

Sound Money for a Sound Economy

In the previous posting on this subject, we looked at the two main problems with Keynesian monetary theory.  To summarize, these are, one, the amount of money (understood by Keynes as limited exclusively to government-created currency) in the economy is determined by political needs, not economic or financial.  Two, all money should be backed by government debt instead of private sector hard assets.

A Chestertonian Challenge

In the previous posting on this subject, I expressed my disappointment at Dr. Joseph Pearce’s ignoring a question I submitted twice.  The question was germane to the topic — Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s 1925 book, The Everlasting Man — and was, in fact, related to the whole focus of Chesterton’s life and work.  As I asked,

JTW Podcast: The Great Reset v. Private Property

This week’s video podcast is the second installment of a four-part series on “Economic Personalism versus The Great Reset”.  Again, this is loosely related to the book, Economic Personalism, but is more in the nature of a somewhat informal conversation about applying the principles of economic personalism to a specific situation.

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 03

Apart from what’s been going on in the U.S. capital, this has been quite a newsworthy week for the Just Third Way, especially in the area of outreach:

The Disappointing Dr. Joseph Pearce

On Tuesday evening, January 19, 2021, I was privileged to listen to an on-line lecture  by the Great Joseph Pearce, as he was introduced.  Sponsored by the Institute of Catholic Culture, the talk was the first in a two-part series on G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man (1925).  As Dr. Pearce has something of a reputation as a Chesterton scholar, I expected to hear something that might deepen my understanding of this unique individual.  Not that all individuals aren’t unique, of course, but Chesterton made a career of it.

Two Different Types of Savings

In the previous posting on this subject, we closed by noting that, if new capital formation cannot take place without savings (which have never not only not denied, but freely admit), and yet we’ve demonstrated beyond the shadow of any doubt whatsoever that existing savings cannot possibly account for the vast amount of capital that exists in the modern world, where on Earth did the financing come from?

Testing the Keynesian Hypothesis

It’s common to say when something bad happens that “It could be worse.”  Of course it could be worse.  It could also be better.  Anybody can make something worse.  The real trick is to make something better.

JTW Podcast: “Economic Personalism v. The Great Reset

For the video podcast this week, we have the first installment of a four-part series on “Economic Personalism versus The Great Reset”.  This is loosely related to the book, Economic Personalism, but is more in the nature of a somewhat informal conversation about applying the principles of economic personalism to a specific situation.

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 02

Some interesting developments have happened this week, some of which make the so-called “new normal” sound an awful lot like the old normal (or, from the Just Third Way point of view, the old abnormal).  Be that as it may, it remains the case that things are not as bad as they seem (nor are they worse), and people will realize this as soon as they recognize the potential of the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism to bring about effective, just change:

A “Debt Tsunami”

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the global debt crisis has reached epic proportions.  Naturally, this is being blamed on the pandemic, but that ignores the fact that the situation existed long before the pandemic.  This “suggests” (to put it mildly) that the pandemic simply exposed the rather large flaws in the existing system and exacerbated an already bad situation.

A New Philosophy of Public Debt

Back in 1943, as Keynesian monetary policy was completing its first decade, Dr. Harold Glenn Moulton, president of the Brookings Institution, published a pamphlet, The New Philosophy of Public Debt.  Although today Brookings is solid Keynesian in its approach, while Moulton was at the helm it presented an alternative to what many regarded as Keynes’s unwise, even dangerous monetary and fiscal policy.

More Policy Objectives of Economic Democracy

In the previous posting on this subject, we presented some of the “policy objectives” of the Economic Democracy Act.  Today we conclude our discussion by presenting another batch.  There are more than those listed in these two blog postings, of course, but this is enough to start:

JTW Podcast: Book Review of “Economic Personalism”

On today’s video podcast, we bring you a book review/interview on CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Citizen.  The book just came out litter over a month aga, but is already beginning to make a splash:

News from the Network, Vol. 14, No. 01

Our first news items of the New Year!  It just might be that 2021 might be “The Year” for the Just Third Way:

Policy Objectives of the Economic Democracy Act

Following up on yesterday’s blog posting, today we take a look at some of the policy objectives of what we call “the Economic Democracy Act.”  To meet Social Security and Medicare entitlements, and provide for their eventual phasing out as the mainstay of retirement income for most Americans, and to shift the Federal Government’s role from today’s income redistribution policies to the more limited and healthy role of encouraging economic justice through free enterprise growth, the Economic Democracy Act would:

An Alternative to the Servile State

In the previous posting on this subject, we criticized the so-called “Great Reset” on the grounds that it really wouldn’t do anything other than exaggerate the flaws in the current system.  In our opinion, the socialized capitalism (or capitalized socialism) of the Great Reset doesn’t do anything except accelerate the alienation of human persons from society.

The New Servile State?

 

Back in 1912, Hilaire Belloc wrote what many consider to be his best book, The Servile State.  Belloc emphasized that he was referring not to socialism or capitalism, per se, but to what we today in the Just Third Way loosely label “the wage system.”  It was Belloc’s megablast against the Fabian socialism that he saw taking over the British Empire.

JTW Podcast: RH Benson’s The Dawn of All

Yes, this is about the Just Third Way, too.  Remember the podcast on Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World?  A few years later, Benson was annoyed that people insisted on taking his satire as “prophecy” that he decided to write The Dawn of All, a “counterblast” (his word), in which everything in Lord of the World was flipped on its head.

Happy New Year!

 Just in case you needed to be reminded. . . .