Making a long story short, the conclusion to be drawn from this week’s news items is that it would be better all ’round if the powers-that-be adopt the Economic Democracy Act as soon as possible:
Jean-Baptiste Say
• Multiplying “Barren Consumptions.” Some people — it’s hard to say how many — seem to think that Elon Musk is the smartest man in the world because he is reportedly the richest man in the world. If he is so smart, however, why does he come up with old and failed ideas to solve problems? We refer to his idea that “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” as he posted on his imaginatively named “X” and reported in an article in The Street. Au contraire, Monsieur Musk. Unless that “high income” comes from either someone’s production or is redistributed from someone else’s, it is purely inflationary. Simply issuing checks — creating money — generates what Jean-Baptiste Say called “multiplying barren consumptions” in his Letters to Mister Malthus (1821) and causes inflation by creating more demand for an unchanged amount of goods and services. The way to deal with the unemployment caused by AI is to make the displaced workers owners of the AI displacing them and thus entitled to the full stream of production — income — generated by the AI. That would restore Say’s Law of Markets, which is somewhat misleadingly but generally summarized as “Production equals income, therefore, supply generates its own demand and demand its own supply.” And how to turn non-capital owners into capital owners? By adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA). As Louis Kelso noted more than half a century ago, “If the machine wants our job, let’s buy [the machine].”
• News Flash: War Affects Consumer Sentiment. Much to the surprise of fans of the current administration, consumer sentiment (whatever exactly that means) is at an all-time low due to the war in Iran, as reported in an article in Yahoo! Finance: “US consumer sentiment showed some improvement amid a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran, but it's still at record lows, according to new data from the University of Michigan. The Index of Consumer Sentiment showed consumer sentiment ended April with a final reading of 49.8, above the 48.5 reading economists expected but marking the lowest level on record — below readings taken during the financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and when inflation spiked following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Overall, consumer sentiment fell 6.6% from last month and 4.6% from a year ago.” So, what should be done about it? Well, stopping war suggests itself, but how do you stop war? We think it’s most effectively done by taking away the causes of war, which these days seems to be caused by a small number of very powerful people who want to rule the world (or what is left of it) and to hell with everyone else. And since the best way to strip people of absolute power is to empower other people, that means adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Grocery Prices Going Up — Surprise! Although the article in Yahoo! Finance claims that the rise won’t hit consumers’ grocery bills until next year (tell that to people doing their grocery shopping), things are clearly going to get worse before they get better, thanks to the war in Iran. As explained in the article, “Food prices were already straining Americans’ pocketbooks. The Iran war could eventually make that problem even starker. So long as Iran is choking off the Strait of Hormuz, around 25% of seaborne oil and one-third of seaborne fertilizers are left without a crucial transit point to reach global markets. The cost of both goods is spiking as a result — all of which weighs on US farmers, who rely on costly fertilizer for their crops and diesel for their equipment.” What to do about it? Again, ending the war suggests itself, but it would also help to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA) as soon as possible.
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| Good Accountants count beans. Great ones grow more. |
• A Fundamental Accounting Mistake. It’s an aphorism in accounting that a good accountant will tell you how to cut costs. A great accountant, on the other hand, will tell you how to increase revenue. That’s why such well-intentioned articles like “Overspending? Here’s How Underconsumption Can Help You Avoid Wasting Money” in The Independent are, at best, short-term stopgaps, not solutions: “If there’s a trend that sums up America’s rising malaise with high inflation and a persistent cost-of-living crisis: it’s underconsumption — intentionally buying less and making items last as long as possible. The growing movement couldn’t come at a better time - a recent survey, from career platform Resume Now, found that 92 percent of Americans cut back their spending in 2025.” Frankly, if you’re wasting money, you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. The real issue is how to make more income, not fewer expenses, and that can be done by adopting the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• The Unobvious Obvious Solution. It seems a mite contradictory . . . because it is. According to an article in Fortune magazine, “AI has progressed at a breakneck pace, quickly transforming from a fun gadget used to draft emails and generate cat memes into a sophisticated tool that now threatens to displace a sizable chunk of white-collar workers.” Despite that, Clara Shih thinks the way to deal with AI displacing people is . . . increase the use of AI! As the article notes, “‘I realized that the only way to help people keep up with the pace of AI was to give them AI tools,’ said Shih, . . . ‘Because if you use the traditional ways…it’s just not fast enough to keep pace with how quickly AI is advancing.’” Mmmmm . . . no. As can be seen the item immediately following this one (below), AI seems to be making people’s jobs harder, not easier. The only realistic response is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• A Side of Fried Brains. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, an article in Fortune magazine tells us that even when AI doesn’t take your job, it makes your job harder! As the article explains, “There are two phenomena happening here. When you are freed up from lower-level work — say, email writing — doing exclusively high-level work, such as analyzing complex data sets, is very taxing on the brain. Second, simply being given a tool that helps us do so much more creates a double-edged sword where people are more engaged and excited about their work, but also work longer hours because the volume has increased overall. . . . Other research from BCG has found a ‘brain fry’ effect: Using AI well, on top of performing our other tasks, is making work doubly or triply effortful, leading to more errors and poorer outcomes.” And the solution? Wait for it . . . adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• Rise of the Machine . . . Again. As reported in an article in BBC News, Japan Airlines is experimenting with robots to replace human ground crew. As the article states, “Japan Airlines (JAL) will start using humanoid robots in ground handling tasks at Tokyo's Haneda airport from May, in a two-year trial it said is aimed at easing employees' workload.” Uh, huh. And once they have reduced the employees’ workload, they can replace the employees . . . at which point they can say that they didn’t see that coming! And the solution? You guessed it. Adopt the Economic Democracy Act (EDA).
• 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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