The Big News this week is the Big Beautiful Bill . . . which as far as we can tell doesn’t do anything to get the Economic Democracy Act: adopted. Other than that (and including that), here’s what’s been happening that affects the Just Third Way:
• Alligator Auschwitz. They are calling it “Alligator Alcatraz,” but up to a point it might be better to call it “Alligator Auschwitz.” This story from The Florida Trident raises a few eyebrows as well as questions. We thought the political spoils system was abolished or at least kept within semi-reasonable bounds. No, it appears that all you need to rake in the moolah is to make a few judicious political contributions and get involved in the right kind of ethnic cleansing. How would the Economic Democracy Act counter this sort of thing? It wouldn’t — directly. It would, however, undermine the monopoly of power enjoyed by the current financial and political elites and enable ordinary people to resist. This would not, of course, be with violence, but with financial power and independence. “Power,” as Daniel Webster said, “naturally and necessarily follows property.” People with power don’t get rounded up by ICE.
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| Atypical, but you get the idea. |
• Typical Family of Four. Apparently our projections for the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) a few years ago were a bit closer to the mark than we thought. We were being generous about how much we thought a “typical family of four” might need to live comfortably. We calculated tax-exempt income of $20,000 per dependent and $30,000 per non-dependent, or $100,000 for a family of two adults and two children should be more than adequate. According to this article in Yahoo! Finance news, however, it appears that $100,000 might be barely adequate, and leave little or no cushion, depending on where the family lives. Of course, the amounts as reported assume the family is paying income taxes, while the EDA amounts would be tax-exempt, but it also factored in the fact families would be picking up a lot of what is now covered by government themselves, so it probably more than evens out. Frankly, unless the Congress gets busy and passes the Economic Democracy Act, the situation is only going to deteriorate.
• Yes, But What Kind of Jobs? America is saved. Again. According to the “Jobs Report” for June 2025, “the labor market” (which sounds a bit like a slave auction if you stop to think about it), added 147,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell a bit. While that is no doubt a Good Thing, we have to ask what kind of jobs are we talking about? Mere employment isn’t enough if the wages are insufficient to meet the increasing costs of raising a family and meet common domestic needs adequately — and that becomes less and less likely as advancing technology competes with human labor making it relatively less valuable economically or displaces it from production altogether. What is the solution? As has been pointed out for more than a few centuries, as many people as possible should own income-generating capital to supplement or even replace income from human labor, and that is the goal of the Economic Democracy Act.
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Fatuous. When it comes to people with money to burn, we are all for conspicuous and costly consumption, the more conspicuouser and costlier, the better. As we noted in a blog posting earlier this week, when the rich purchase and consume goods and services, they actually benefit society much more than they would had they spent even much greater amounts reinvesting in more capital and “creating jobs.” That being said, the line must be drawn somewhere. Yes, conspicuous consumption can benefit the economy, but a little good taste and common sense would also be nice. We have nothing against superyachts — they are very expensive and create tons of jobs, as do the increasingly ridiculous demands made by their owners and guests, but fake wars? Hot and cold running whores? Assinine behavior? Even that might not be quite as bad as the total isolation living in the superyacht world imposes on its inhabitants. They live in a complete fantasy removed from real life. Even a hundred years ago the rich lived among the rest of us; they had to in order to be able to lord it over other people. Nowadays, with AI and advanced technology and so on, the rich can isolate themselves completely from real life or even in some degree artificial life. What’s the answer? Well, maybe there isn’t one, but with the Economic Democracy Act., the rest of us can go our own ways and not worry about the superrich and their superyachts and the rest of it.
• Business and the Big Beautiful Bill. Not getting into specifics (which would be difficult with a bill covering more pages than most people have read in the past decade) it will affect tax rates, energy, and healthcare, mostly in ways that secure the rich in their power monopoly. Frankly, if the BBB really wanted to be the greatest bill ever passed in the history of the world, it would be the Economic Democracy Act. which benefits everybody without harming anyone . . . unless you define power as having power over others to keep them utterly dependent on you.
• Why Not An ESOP? As reported in an article in Yahoo! Finance news, “Del Monte Foods, the 138-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, has filed for bankruptcy and is looking for a buyer. Late Tuesday, the company announced it was voluntarily entering Chapter 11 and is going through a sale process for all of its assets.” This one is a no-brainer. If Del Monte would like to find a buyer and become profitable, then they should implement an ESOP, profit sharing, and participatory management. Studies by the National Center for Employee Ownership in Oakland, California, have shown that companies with these features are 150% more profitable than otherwise comparable firms. It’s at least something to think about. Of course, overall, it would be better to adopt the Economic Democracy Act.
• 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 (now with an imprimatur), 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., 52 or more copies) at the wholesale price, send an email to info@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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