Scrooge and the Virtue of Being Rich, Part I

In A Christmas Carol — as if you couldn’t tell from the title of this posting — the Ghost of Christmas Past forces Ebenezer Scrooge to watch as his younger self accepts Belle’s (his fiancée) release from their engagement.  As she gives him her decision (and, presumably, returns the ring, although Dickens didn’t mention that particular bit of jewelry — pronounced “jewel-ry,” not “jew-lery,” by the way), we gain important clues as to Scrooge’s motive for pursuing wealth . . . which is, of course, why Dickens included the scene:

JTW Podcast: All-Robot Attack

No, this is not science fiction.  It’s real life, and it potentially can end the war Russia is waging against Ukraine as soon as the powers-that-be in Russia realize the implications.  Russia’s advantage to date has been using its numerical superiority to overwhelm Ukraine using “meat waves,” i.e., cannon fodder to take casualties (nearly 800,000 so far) and exhaust Ukraine’s defenders.

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 51

This is the first half of our annual news roundup.  We’re trying something different this year, however.  Instead of trying to choose all the important news stories, we’re just picking what we thing may be the most important one from each week as it relates to the Just Third Way.  The overall objective, of course, is to get the powers-that-be (or powers-that-are-to-be) to adopt the Economic Democracy Act, but in the meantime:

Is It Really “Too Complicated”?

The halls of justice (or should that be “the howls of justice”?) rang recently with protests to the effect mentioning economic and social justice — at a meeting of the Center for Economic and Social Justice(!) — is “too complicated” and turns people off (“they just roll their eyes”).  The complaints got louder when some of us tried to explain why you just can’t say “you’ll have more money” to explain economic justice and ignore social justice altogether as having been hijacked by the socialists.

JTW Podcast: Professor Dave on Socrates and Plato

Okay, although Prof. Dave uses the word “impactful,” this video is still useful as providing basic background material on two very important philosophers, who — even if we don’t accept their thought in preference to Aristotle — are still important:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 50

This is the last new news report for the year as next week we plan on posting the first half of our annual news roundup . . . which some people actually read!  If you don’t, we can sum up the message for the year as the powers-that-be should the Economic Democracy Act:

Why It’s Not Distributism

A little backstory.  A few years ago, we were asked to prepare an explanation of what we mean by “the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.”  Even though we are an interfaith group, the request came from an official at the Vatican (not the pope or anyone you know).  We wrote the explanation based on universal principles of natural law applicable to all “natural” faiths and philosophies (mostly based on or compatible with Aristotelian philosophy).

JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part II

This week, “Professor Dave Explains” continues his talk on Greek philosophers before Socrates.  It’s a little abrupt, since Part I was the first half of the lecture and this is the second half, but that’s not really anything to worry about.  So, let’s get down and funky with the Presocratics:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 49

As the year draws to a close, we see increasing numbers of reasons for somebody somewhere to adopt the Economic Democracy Act and lead the way for the rest of the world:

What is the Federal Reserve For, Exactly?

George Will’s November 30, 2024, column asked the question as to what, exactly, is the purpose of the Federal Reserve System.  This is a reasonable concern, especially given the way governments throughout the world have been using their central banks to spend money like drunken sailors on leave.  Unfortunately, although Will pontificated for 750 words or so, it was evident that, while he clearly intended the title of his column to be rhetorical, he himself has no realistic idea of the role or function of a central bank, much less any bank other than a bank of deposit.

JTW Podcast: Presocratic Philosophy, Part I

This week, “Professor Dave Explains” about Greek philosophers before Socrates.  It’s pretty rapid fire, but still informative and (up to a point) entertaining.  As before, personally, we find the use of “BCE” instead of “BC” is annoying, but we’re big enough to let that pass . . . for now: