Trump and the economy are the Big News this week . . . and since he isn’t really saying anything different than anyone else, we still need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:
• Trump and Social Security. Trump has proposed two non-reforms to Social Security: 1) Leave it alone, and 2) Stop taxation of benefits. Either one is grossly inadequate, together they are . . . okay, grossly inadequate. Something has to be done. That something should logically be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, which as “The Capital Homestead Act” was pitched as a way to save Social Security. It’s still a valid and viable option.
• Home Fusion Power? According a news report this week, a teenager has invented a working fusion reactor. We can hardly wait for our home fusion reactor, but it also shows the sort of thing that could happen if people got their consumption income from capital earnings and could devote their leisure to innovative and interesting projects. Would a lot of people waste their time? Sure . . . but they do that now, doing useless work in a useless job just to gain income. It would be much better to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, and find out . . . and solve a few other problems.
• Economists Worried. The experts — yeah, we know — are worried that Trump’s economic policies may not give the economy a “soft landing.” The problem is not really with Trump, however, or even the failed candidate(s), but with the — you guessed it — experts. Trump proposes differences in degree, not in kind. The problem is in the flawed economic paradigm within which he and others are operating. This could be solved by adopting the Economic Democracy Act.
• Trump Inheriting a Strong Economy? Again, with the experts . . . this time claiming that Trump is inheriting a strong economy . . . according to whom? And by what measure? Frankly, the economy for the rich may be doing great, but for the rest of us it kind of [bleep]. The alternative to make it a strong economy for everyone would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• REALLY Cheap Housing. For some time, small towns in Europe, mostly Italy, have been giving away unused and dilapidated houses for a symbolic €1 (about $1) on condition people agree to renovate the house and live in it. The latest town (sort of, they’ve been doing it for a while) is Ollolai in rural Sardinia, which has put up a new website advertising their €1 houses to Americans fleeing the United States because Trump won the election. A better alternative? Why not restore power to the people so it doesn’t matter who is in the Oval Office by adopting the Economic Democracy Act. This would also help towns like Ollolai if Italy adopted it, by giving people the means to stay or move to small towns and get away from expensive places like Rome and Milan . . . which are terrific to visit, but rather unnerving to inhabit at times.
• A Welfare Fix? According to the experts (and you know what we think that’s worth), Trump’s plan to “save” welfare is to enhance the EITC, the Earned Income Tax Credit. This would shift the burden of welfare from the taxpayers to, well, uh, the taxpayers. It’s just a question as to which tax bucket something comes out of. It comes either out of taxes paid by some, or of taxes not paid by others, and sometimes both. A better solution would be to adopt the Economic Democracy Act and let more people meet their own needs through their own efforts.
• North Korean Slave Soldiers. During the American Revolution, Great Britain bought Hessian soldiers from their ruler for $10 a head. The Hessians didn’t see any of the money. Similarly, Putin is spending large amounts of money buying North Korean soldiers, but North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the one receiving the cash. This is a losing proposition for Putin, because while he can finagle not paying Russians, Kim Jong Un will not let him get away with non-payment. Of course, neither dictator would be able to get away with anything if the people they own weren’t owned — in other words, if people in Russia and North Korea owned adequate capital stakes and had control over their own lives, there wouldn’t be a problem. That is why they should adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• Upper-Class Retirement Nest Eggs. How much do “upper class” (as opposed to us “lower class”) people have squirrelled away for “retirement”? The big-big shots have $900K, while the big shots have $269K, while overall for all Americans savings are $87K. These figures are misleading, however. What counts is not the size of the cash hoard you have stashed away, or even how much your home is worth, but the income generating capacity of your capital investments. That is why we need to adopt the Economic Democracy Act so we can have income, not just the symbols of income.
• The Musky Mortgage Muddle. According to some economic experts, Elon Musk’s antics with Tesla and the social media platform formerly known as Twitter will bring down mortgage rates, making home ownership more affordable. How, you ask? Well . . . we don’t understand it, exactly (or at all), but apparently as Musk becomes wealthier, interest rates are going to come down, and we will all be better off. Of course, if Musk was really concerned about other people, he would push for the Economic Democracy Act. instead of enhancing his own already gargantuan wealth and power.
• The Long and the Short of It. This doesn’t have much to do with the Just Third Way but is a little thought provoking. The tallest and the shortest women in the world recently had tea together. Cute, and all that. Interestingly, both women are able to make a living by capitalizing on their unique situations, both being in the Guiness Book of World Records. This raises a question: what about the second tallest woman in the world, or the second shortest woman? They don’t have the cachet of being the record holders; what’s the good of being someone who might not be sufficiently unusual and is unable to make a living any other way? Why not something like the Economic Democracy Act, which would allow anyone to make a living, even when they have nothing unique about them they can exploit?
• Putin Declares War on the World. Putin is not a raving lunatic . . . no one has yet seen the stone-faced Russian dictator so much as change expression perceptibly. That being said, you don’t need to be raving to be a lunatic. This is demonstrated by the fact that this week Putin used an ICBM against Ukraine, the first instance of this in history . . . and it seems to have had exactly the opposite effect. Putin has announced that this means his war on Ukraine is “going global” . . . implying he is declaring war on the entire world. And this isn’t crazy? He has failed to make substantive gains in the more than 1,000 days of his 3-day Special Military Operation against Ukraine, and now he wants to take on the rest of the world? He can’t even keep Russia’s economy going, with the median income now equaling (more or less) the cost of food, and people getting arrested and sentenced to prison for stealing butter. This suggests that if Russia would dump Putin and adopt the Economic Democracy Act., people could not only afford to feed themselves and stop stealing butter, they could stop the war and concentrate on rebuilding their own country that Putin’s dreams of world conquest has ruined.
• Bitcoin Bonanza. Yes, Bitcoin, the premier cryptocurrency in the world, is starting to get into the exclusive neighborhood of $100,000. Notice we didn’t say Bitcoin is worth $100,000, just that some people are willing to pay $100,000 for an electronic impulse that has nothing behind it, not even government debt. If the Bitcoin and other crypto craziness has you equally baffled, work for adoption of the Economic Democracy Act, so people can invest in actual capital assets instead of a virtual fantasy.
• Greater Reset “Book Trailers”. We have produced two ninety-second “Book Trailers” for distribution (by whoever wants to distribute them), essentially minute and a half commercials for The Greater Reset. There are two versions of the videos, one for “general audiences” and the other for “Catholic audiences”. Take your pick.
• The Greater Reset. CESJ’s book by members of CESJ’s core group, The Greater Reset: Reclaiming Personal Sovereignty Under Natural Law is, of course, available from the publisher, TAN Books, an imprint of Saint Benedict Press, and has already gotten a top review on that website. It can also be obtained from Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon, or by special order from your local “bricks and mortar” bookstore. The Greater Reset is the only book of which we’re aware on “the Great Reset” that presents an alternative instead of simply warning of the dangers inherent in a proposal that is contrary to natural law. It describes reality, rather than a Keynesian fantasy world. Please note that The Greater Reset is NOT a CESJ publication as such, and enquiries about quantity discounts and wholesale orders for resale must be sent to the publisher, Saint Benedict Press, NOT to CESJ.
• Economic Personalism Landing Page. A landing page for CESJ’s latest publication, Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, has been created and can be accessed by clicking on this link. Everyone is encouraged to visit the page and send the link out to their networks.
• Economic Personalism. When you purchase a copy of Economic Personalism: Property, Power and Justice for Every Person, be sure you post a review after you’ve read it. It is available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble at the cover price of $10 per copy. You can also download the free copy in .pdf available from the CESJ website. If you’d like to order in bulk (i.e., ten or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to publications@cesj.org for details. CESJ members get a $2 rebate per copy on submission of proof of purchase. Wholesale case lots of 52 copies are available at $350, plus shipping (whole case lots ONLY). Prices are in U.S. dollars.
• Sensus Fidelium Videos, Update. CESJ’s series of videos for Sensus Fidelium are doing very well, with over 155,000 total views. The latest Sensus Fidelium video is “The Five Levers of Change.” The video is part of the series on the book, Economic Personalism. The latest completed series on “the Great Reset” can be found on the “Playlist” for the series. The previous series of sixteen videos on socialism is available by clicking on the link: “Socialism, Modernism, and the New Age,” along with some book reviews and other selected topics. For “interfaith” presentations to a Catholic audience they’ve proved to be popular, edging up to 150,000 views to date. They aren’t really “Just Third Way videos,” but they do incorporate a Just Third Way perspective. You can access the playlist for the entire series. The point of the videos is to explain how socialism and socialist assumptions got such a stranglehold on the understanding of the role of the State and thus the interpretation of Catholic social teaching, and even the way non-Catholics and even non-Christians understand the roles of Church, State, and Family, and the human persons place in society.
Those are the happenings for this week, at least those that we know about. If you have an accomplishment that you think should be listed, send us a note about it at mgreaney [at] cesj [dot] org, and well see that it gets into the next “issue.” Due to imprudent and intemperate language on the part of some commentators, we removed temptation and disabled comments.
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