Was Jesus the First Socialist?

Quick answer: no.  The idea — in those terms — first appeared in the early nineteenth century, which (as we saw in the previous posting on this subject) was when socialists were trying to garner as many “implied ethical endorsements” as they could to sell their system.  It’s an interesting story.

Private Property According to Fulton Sheen

In his 1940 classic, Freedom Under God, Fulton J. Sheen had a few pithy things to say about private property.  Almost nothing in economics, finance, and political economy is more misunderstood than private property.  The sole exception is money and credit, which are simply two different forms of the same thing: promises and the keeping of promises. (“Money and Credit are essentially of the same nature; Money being only the highest and most general form of Credit.” Henry Dunning Macleod, The Theory of Credit. Longmans, Green and Co., 1894, 82.) Furthermore, private property and money are inextricably linked. (Irving Fisher, The Purchasing Power of Money.  New York: Macmillan, 1931, 4-6.)

Stoking the Fire

For a change of pace, we're presenting a video today on a subject we know very little about, but is well-worth considering: weening the United States (and every other country) off of the fossil fuels.  As we said, this is not our area of expertise, so we can't really judge the feasibility of the idea.  It just sounds like a good one:

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

With the stock market bouncing around like a rubber ball and the rest of the news almost completely focused on the pandemic, it’s hard to find news items directly related to the Just Third Way.  That is why we’re not going to do it:

More How Not to Stimulate an Economy

In the previous posting on this subject, we gave a few reasons as to why printing up money and handing it out (or even spending it on things that don’t generate a payback) is a really bad idea.  We also mentioned that when we addressed the subject again, we would present what (in our opinion) ought to be done . . . so here goes. . . .

How to Argue With a Socialist (If He is G.B. Shaw)

Once upon a time there were two people who liked to argue with each other.  There is nothing wrong with that, except one of them was a socialist and inclined to take any unfair advantage to win an argument.  The other (who was not a socialist) didn’t care about winning the argument as long as he persuaded others of the truth or reasonableness of his position.  Naturally enough, the two managed to argue for nearly twenty years without the one actually winning the argument, or the other persuading him of anything.

How Not to Stimulate an Economy

As of this writing, the $1 trillion stimulus package has crashed and burned in Congress.  That’s a good thing.  Not that we can afford to let the economy go its not-so-merry way, but remedial action should alleviate the symptoms and cure the disease, not make matters worse.

Fulton Sheen Rides Again!

Well . . . Fulton Sheen was born in El Paso . . . Illinois, so the "rides again" isn't entirely out of left field.  It's even somewhat appropriate.  In any event, this week we bring you yet another "Catholic-catholic" message from "America's Archbishop" suitable for people of all faiths and philosophies . . . although you do have to do a little "filtering" of the "Catholic language" to get to the universal, small-c catholic message.

Own the Future: A True Cure for an Ailing Economy

Guest Blog by Gary Reber

Michael Bloomberg has penned an editorial column in which he calls for embarking on the largest public investment in infrastructure in generations, with government issuing new money to finance this. This money will be backed, as it is today, by government debt, repayable with future taxpayer dollars.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 12

Giving in to popular demand (and the lack of news in other areas), our Just Third Way news items lean a little bit in the direction of the Covid-19 pandemic . . . but without giving recommendations on how to prevent it.  What we’re concerned with (from the Just Third Way perspective, not personally) is the economic and financial responses being proposed, some of which strike us as possibly unwise:

A Primer on Panics

Financial panic, that is.  With the stock market going up and down like a yoyo, many people are giving in to panic.  The irony is that while some panic over the effects of the Covid-19 virus is understandable if not entirely rational, the frenzy over the financial markets is completely irrational.  People appear to be confusing the secondary stock market with the primary productive market.

What, Then, Does Cardinal Ratzinger Mean?

Back in 1864, the Reverend Charles Kingsley, considered a leader in the Christian socialist movement, a modernist, and a proponent of what he called “Muscular Christianity” (and others called “Sanctimonious Obnoxious Religious Bullying”), accused Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman of both lying and promoting lying as a virtue . . . based on some rather distorted (to put it mildly) versions of Newman’s sermons as a Protestant and one or two false allegations and accusations.

Did Cardinal Ratzinger Endorse Socialism?

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, there has been a veritable tsunami of authorities — usually self-appointed — insisting that “democratic” (or any other kind of) socialism is not merely consistent with Christian social teaching, but is the purest form of it.  The evidence presented . . . okay, asserted without a shred of evidence . . . was that C.S. Lewis “approved” of socialism.

Oh, Look! Another Fulton Sheen Podcast!

The good thing about Fulton Sheen is that although he was a Catholic figure (we avoid the words "intellectual" or — worse — "world's first televangelist"), he appealed to virtually everyone with a basic grounding in common sense and a natural law orientation.  That is why, although CESJ is an interfaith organization, we find Sheen's work very compatible with the message of the Just Third Way.  It's also lucky for us that although the "Catholic Hour" radio show was planned to feature a number of different speakers, it rapidly developed into a "Fulton Sheen Hour."

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 11

It seems almost incredible, but the situation today and that of two hundred years ago are so similar as to make it look as if we’re replaying the past with a vengeance.  Society is dissolving in chaos, socialism is being offered as a panacea, and a very bad, even destructive understanding of money and credit virtually rules the world:

Whence Cometh This Rush of Socialism?

In the previous posting on this subject we looked at the evidence — such as it was — that we could dig up to support the contention that the Christian apologist C.S. Lewis approved of socialism in any form.  Admittedly, the evidence we found was remarkably weak, not to say unconvincing, but we had to do the work ourselves as the individuals making the claim were a trifle shy about providing their own evidence.

Did C.S. Lewis Approve of Socialism?

We got into a little argument a short time ago about socialism, capitalism, and Christianity.  Coming across a FaceBook placard or whatever you call ’em that proclaimed, “Capitalism causes socialism”, we made the mistake of putting our two-and-a-half cents in, although you would have thought that by now we would have learned our lesson about trying to argue with people who think assertion is argument and personal insults are proof.

The Problem of Social Justice

We come to the final installment of our series explaining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ).  If you read the list of CESJ’s Core Values in order you will notice that they go more or less in a logical order, a progression from the Source of it all, to the main goal of CESJ . . . of life itself, as a matter of fact.

Fulton Sheen Again!

"Of Sheen Never Enough"?  We won't go that far, but it's nice to see a Christian clergyman of any denomination in the 20th or 21st centuries who comes out so strong against the "new things" of modernism, socialism, and the New Age . . . without attacking the modernists, socialists, and the New Agers (although that hasn't stopped them from going after anyone who disagrees with them, or who they think disagrees with them, or who will disagree with them, or who might disagree with them, or whose tie they don't like, or. . . .)

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 10

Should we mention the stock market gyrations and the effect of the corona virus?  No.  If we do, we’ll just be wrong, as the situation changes so fast that there’s no way to be accurate except in hindsight.  We’ll just ask if you really need that much toilet paper?  Otherwise, let’s see what’s happening on the Just Third Way front:

A Disagreement or Two

In the previous posting on this subject we began addressing a series of questions and comments, nine in all from a faithful reader.  As we covered the material in depth in previous postings, we answered them with brief clarifications.  Most of the issues seemed to be semantic, so we only needed to give brief responses.  We covered the first five in the previous posting, and get to the remaining four today:

Some Questions on Social Virtue

As we may have mentioned once or twice, we occasionally get questions from our readers.  When these are substantive — as most of them are (the complainers just issue, er, complaints and then run away) — we can use our answers as blog postings.  This saves us a lot of work, or at least some brain time trying to think up something that will instruct as well as edify without offending too many people except for modernists, socialists, and New Agers . . . but they’re offended all the time, anyway.

Social Justice and the Common Good

In the previous posting on this subject we asked whether a society can maintain itself when the vast majority of people are cut off from participation in the common good by lack of capital ownership — and answered our own question with a “no.”  Some people will object to this, citing the fact that there have been many societies throughout history in which the great mass of people owned nothing but their labor.

Fulton Sheen on the Crisis

Last week to semi-popular acclaim we presented a 1943 "Catholic Hour" broadcast by then-Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen, "The Thing We Are Fighting Against."  This week we follow up on that with another random selection from Sheen's Catholic Hour shows, "War and Revolution," from January 3 (or 31, it's not clear), 1943, the first in the series on "the Crisis in Christendom" . . . not the college in Northern Virginia (necessarily . . . unless they want to admit something!), but what is left of western civilization against the onslaught of the "New Things" against which Sheen struggled his entire career:

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 09

All eyes today are on the stock markets of the world instead of the productive, primary markets.  We’ll give in to popular pressure and explain why this is a bad idea, but that’s as far as we’ll go:

Personality, Property, and Participation

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject (subject being the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice, CESJ), persons need rights in order to exercise their sovereignty and to pursue truth, beauty, love, and justice, not necessarily in that order.

Achieving Sovereignty

In the previous posting on this subject — the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) we looked at the issue of sovereignty . . . and had to present a great deal of information on what we mean by the term as applied in “liberal democracy,” or “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  We discovered that many people had so many different meanings for “people” and even “government” that “liberal democracy” effectively had no meaning at all!

A Question of Sovereignty

Although it seems to be upsetting to adherents of various new theories (“new” being very relative in this case, referring to non-Aristotelian ways of thinking), our series explaining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) has proved to be rather popular.  Evidently a significant number of people are pleasantly surprised when the realize there is an ethical alternative to both capitalism and socialism that doesn’t require you to check your brains at the door.

Fulton Sheen on "The New Christianity"

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly), an astonishing number of people have commented favorably on our recent series explaining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ).  The posting on "stewardship" was particularly popular, even among a number of people who have previously described themselves as "socialists."  They seemed genuinely unaware that the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism presents a viable alternative to both socialism and capitalism.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 08

Modern politics is a wonder . . . you wonder why no one running for office has picked up on the obvious advantages of adopting the Just Third Way of economic personalism as a main plank of a platform.  That being said:

Stewardship

Continuing our presentation and discussion of the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice, as we saw in the previous posting on this subject there is a difference between work performed to keep body and soul together, and the work of becoming more fully human, i.e., the work of promoting or working for one’s own perfection or completeness as a human being by conforming more closely to human nature.

The Highest Form of Work

Continuing our blog series examining the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), we follow up on yesterday’s posting on our little explication of “Nothing should stand between God and the human person,” with a dissertation on the meaning of work.  As it says in the CESJ Core Values,

God and the Human Person

Continuing our discussion from the previous posting on this subject, a while back — quite a long while, actually — we had a conversation at an organizing meeting of a local writers group with a Catholic attorney who wanted to be a writer.  We didn’t know what sort of writing the fellow wanted to do; from the fact that he didn’t mention any publication record but kept asking about this writer’s credentials we strongly suspect that he thought of writing as a “one day” project, as in “One day I’m going to write something.”

The Green Economy

On today's pod/video cast, we have Martin Smith, who explains why "going green" doesn't have to mean "going without" or "going poor."  It does mean "getting smart" about the choices we and others make:

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 07

At the top of the news this week is the Corona virus, but we don’t know better than anyone else what has happened, what could happen, or what will happen, so we’ll stick with other stories until we do know:

“An Ultimate Source”

In the previous posting on this subject — the reason for having “core values” in the first place — we looked at the link between solidarity and core values.  After all, if solidarity means accepting the principles that define a group as that group and no other, it makes sense that the principles be clearly defined or you won’t know who belongs to that group.

Why Have Core Values?

As a follow-up to the previous posting on this subject, we decided to look at the issue of why organizations such as CESJ — or any organization, for that matter — even have core values in the first place.  Obviously, the best place to start looking for an answer is CESJ itself.  Why does CESJ have core values?  Because —

Religion and All That

A while back (four years to be vaguely exact . . . to employ a precise estimate) we posted the Core Values of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ).  We gave them straight, without embellishment or explanation, as we thought they are pretty much self-explanatory.  The other day, however, we got an email from someone we had referred to the CESJ website.  As he said,

Just Third Way Videocast: Third Party 2020?

We continue our series of "video podcasts" covering subjects of interest to the Just Third Way (if not always from a Just Third Way perspective) with a look at the election of 1912, the last time a "third party candidate" gave the two major parties a serious run for the money.  The "Bull Moose" (Progressive Party . . . which used to mean something good) candidate Theodore "Don't Call Me Teddy" Roosevelt very nearly won over the Democratic candidate Woodrow "In the Pocket of Wall Street" Wilson.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 06

A number of recent events underscore the importance of implementing Just Third Way reforms as soon as possible in order to head off what could be some disastrous events and to resolve a number of existing situations that appear to be without viable solutions.  Still, there are a number of initiatives working to move forward that give a little hope that what seem to be insurmountable problems can be dealt with in an effective and just manner:

The Facts of Life

As we’ve noted once or twice on this blog, we like to get questions from our readers.  This makes it easy to write the next blog posting.  The only thing we like better is being able to, er, “borrow” somebody else’s answer to a question on some aspect or point of the Just Third Way.

Is Keynesian Economics Socialist?

The other day while doing some research into the origins of the “new things” of socialism (which is not all that social), modernism (which is not all that modern), and the New Age (which is not all that new), we came across an article from 1993, “Liberalism and Socialism: The Same Thing?” (Paul E. Corcoran, University of Adelaide, Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Monash University, September 29-October 1, 1993)

Paying for Justice

Obviously, if you have to pay for justice, it isn’t justice.  That’s not what we mean.  We’re referring to the fact that meeting the demands of justice can — and does — often incur a cost in terms of time, resources, and money.  This is not “buying justice,” any more than paying a judge a salary or jury members for their time is purchasing a verdict (although, obviously, the system can be subverted and corrupted).

The Frontier Thesis

Today's pod/video-cast takes a look at Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 "Frontier Thesis."  Frankly, it was difficult to find a video that just reported Turner's thesis and gave the facts . . . and this one is no exception.  As far as the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism is concerned, Turner's key point is that the end of "free" land under the Homestead Act of 1862 meant the eventual end of American-style democracy . . . a conclusion with which we have qualified agreement.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 05

This week we have a number of news items relating to the great Keynesian economic illusion that government creates wealth by issuing debt, and that inflation is essential to economic growth.  Neither assumption is correct and is easily disproved, but you can’t seem to get today’s academics or politicians to understand that:

Part 2½: What About the Universal Basic Income?

It’s true that no good deed ever goes unpunished . . . sort of.  In the previous two postings on this subject, which we imaginatively called Part I and Part II, respectively, we were asked the burning question whether the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism/Capital Homesteading, etc., could be considered communist.

Part II: Is the Just Third Way Communist?

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, we sometimes get letters asking about the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism, and once in a while we answer them . . . okay, we almost always answer them, except when someone is obviously trolling or trying to start a fight.  It’s even better when somebody else answers them so that we can steal the answer and use it as a blog posting.

Part I: Is the Just Third Way Communist?

As we’ve said before on this blog, we like it when people ask us questions (coherent ones, anyway) that we can answer and then “recycle” what we wrote as blog postings.  It’s even better when somebody else answers a question instead of us.  That way we can steal the question and answer and use it as a blog post without actually having to do any work. . . .

The Homestead Act of 1862

This video might help people to understand why the idea of the 1862 Homestead Act should be duplicated today by extending the concept to all forms of capital:

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 04

Some interesting items this week on the global justice (or lack thereof) front . . . mostly lack thereof, and the obvious need for the Just Third Way of Economic Personalism.  Of course, getting people to understand that may be another matter, but there is certainly enough evidence that something needs to be done:

Life, Charity, and Justice

In classic Thomist philosophy, as we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the four natural virtues are temperance, fortitude, prudence, and — above all — justice.  According to Aristotle (and thus Aquinas), the capacity to acquire and develop these virtues is built into human nature.  No one is human without the capacity to acquire and develop these virtues, for that capacity (which is the good common to every human being) is what defines human beings as human beings.

The Meaning of Life

A sketch on the old Muppet Show with their very special guest star Harvey Korman had a panel discussion on The Meaning of Life.  Harvey Korman came down on the side of “Life is like a tennis game,” with which Miss Piggy disagreed, while one of the other panelists favored “Life is like a garbage dump.”  The discussion ended with a general exchange of insults and the announcement that the next discussion would cover whether conversation was a dying art . . . whereupon all the Muppets keeled over leaving Korman shaking his head.

We the People

It’s an absolute dogma of modern politics and economics.  Everyone has the right to what they need to live a decent life.  If people do not have what they need to do so, it is the responsibility of the State to see that they do, and all efforts are to be directed to the end of providing people with what they need.

Martin Luther King Summit

This week we bring you a repeat of the Summit on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Just Third Way.  Enjoy!

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 03

We didn’t get too much news from our network this week, but there are a number of items of interest to adherents of the Just Third Way.  It’s just a coincidence it’s mostly about food and drink this week:

A Missing Link

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, in response to the “new things” of socialism, modernism and the New Age, in 1891 Pope Leo XIII proposed a program of expanded capital ownership.  This would empower people and families, giving them the opportunity and means to overcome the growing social alienation that had led to the development and growth of the new things in the first place.

New Things

In case you haven’t noticed, it has become increasingly frequent over the past couple of decades to demonize anyone who disagrees with you on virtually any subject.  We’d say, “on any subject,” but there must be some things that people don’t disagree on.  Somewhere.

Backwards It Getting

No, we’re not trying out a bad Yoda impression, although that might not be a bad idea if it brings in readers.  Or maybe a Darth Vader as (apocryphally) done by Tony Curtis in The Black Shield of Falworth?  “Luke, I am yer Fada.”

The Just Third Way on EWTN Live

Okay, admittedly the Just Third Way only comes in around the last quarter of the show, but at least half the studio audience stated explicitly that it was the best part of the show, and a number of other people concurred, judging from the mail we've received.  So, just in case you missed it when it was live or on some of the reruns, here is the January 8, 2020 EWTN Live show with your host Father Mitch Pacwa interviewing CESJ's Director of Research, Michael D. Greaney:

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 02

Perhaps the most unusual thing this week from the Just Third Way perspective is how no one seems to be questioning the incredible rise in share values on the stock market that is not linked to any discernible increase in the quantity or quality of marketable goods and services, i.e., “economic growth.”  Instead, the rise in share values is itself taken as “economic growth,” even though shares are not actually marketable goods or services.  Be that as it may, here are the Just Third Way highlights for this week:

Debt and Taxes

According to an article in the December 27, 2019 Washington Post, in the middle of a presumably booming economy, Americans are drowning in non-mortgage consumer debt. (“Americans Piling Up Near-Record Levels of Credit Card Debt,” A-3.)  Unacknowledged in the story — or anywhere else — is the depressing (and sobering) fact that Keynesian economics and all derivatives, absolutely rely on non-productive spending for consumption, what Jean-Baptiste Say called “multiplying barren consumptions.”

Rethinking Saving for Retirement

It’s a truism that has become engrained into American life.  Go to school to get good grades.  Get good grades to get a good job.  Get a good job to get a good pension for retirement.  Be sure to save enough on the side in an IRA or 401(k) to supplement your pension and Social Security so you can afford to do all the fun things you see other people doing on TV.

The Idea of “Leisure Work”

In the previous postings on this subject we looked at the effect two key inventions, the cotton gin and the McCormick Reaper, had on society, whether for good or for ill.  The cotton gin made raising cotton profitable, while the McCormick Reaper made it possible to think about ending world hunger and famine.

Norman Kurland on the Harold Channer Show

Here's a video from not too long ago, September 18, 2000, featuring Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), having a conversation with Harold Channer on his show.

EWTN Live! and Ten Battles Everyone Should Know

A relatively short time ago the principal author of this blog had a book published by TAN Books.  With the title Ten Battles Every Catholic Should Know (2018), which will be featured — along with the author! — on EWTN Live! January 8, 2020, 8:00 pm EST on the EWTN Television Network, a cable television channel.  Check your local listings for when it airs in your area.  If you miss it or don’t have cable, EWTN usually puts the show up on YouTube within a couple of days.

News from the Network, Vol. 13, No. 01

The big news this week is actually for next week: Michael D. Greaney, CESJ’s Director of Research, is scheduled to appear on the Eternal Word Television Network’s show EWTN Live! with Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J.  In the expanded ownership arena, we kick off the year with the SECURE Act, that puts more power in the hands of participants in qualified retirement plans:

A Tale of Two Machines, II: The McCormick Reaper

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, the invention of the cotton gin revolutionized cotton production and, in a horrifying twist of fate, revived what to all appearances was a dying institution at the end of the eighteenth century: human chattel slavery.  Cotton was now phenomenally profitable as the world’s leading fiber, cheap, durable, and economical to produce . . . if you ignored the fact that it provided an excuse to enslave millions of human beings and wore out land at a tremendous rate.  When money talks, human dignity walks.

Happy New Year!

Since it's a holiday, the blog is also taking the day off. . . .

An Unimportant Shift in Meaning

In the previous posting on this subject we looked at the fundamental assumption of socialism: that people have a right to what they need.  In the modern age this has largely displaced the traditional assumption that people have a right to the means to acquire what they need.

Just Third Way for Local Government

In this week’s podcast we bring you a special guest, Chris Dardzinski from Lincoln Park, Michigan, where he is an Economist, local politician, and Just Third Way activist. He talks about how to organize for change right where you live, including efforts to implement the concept of Capital Homesteading locally.

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 52

It’s time again for our annual news roundup, the first part of which we posted last week, and the second part today.  Again, there is such a volume of material that for once we decided to forgo illustrations:

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It

In case you haven’t noticed, there is something of a split in modern society.  On the one hand are those who believe that you only deserve what you work for, and if you don’t have something, it’s because you didn’t work for it.  You are lazy, shiftless, and worthless.

Merry Christmas!

If you're visiting this blog today . . . why?  As long as you stopped by, however, kick off your shoes, sit back, and have a glass of hot mulled cider or whatever you want.

“Good Upon ’Change”

This is the time of year when people give each other the Dickens in the numberless readings and dramatic adaptations of A Christmas Carol, that is, as well as all the parodies, spoofs, rip-offs, and cartoons.  A personal favorite among the later comes from the old New Yorker/Saturday Review of Literature cartoon series by the late Burr Shafer (1899-1965), “Through History With J. Wesley Smith,” known as “History’s Greatest Wrong-Guesser.”

An Oldie But a Goodie

A while back the talk was about Louis Kelso's "Second Income Plan."  The principles are the same as those of the Capital Homestead Act, and some people might wonder why we continued to develop the concept.  View these videos and judge for yourself.  We think we've come a long way, but you will see that decades ago Kelso was already centuries ahead of where we are now:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 51

It’s time again for our annual news roundup, the first part of which we will post today, and the second part next week.  There is such a volume of material that for once we decided to forgo illustrations:

A Tale of Two Machines, I: The Cotton Gin

Many people are aware that advancing technology has an effect on society and individual behavior.  From the displacement of human labor from the production process to video game or social media addiction, technology often seems to benefit only a relatively small number of people at the expense of everyone else.

Guest Blog: Is Capitalism a Moral System?

A short time ago, someone “accused” CESJ of promoting capitalism as a moral system, linking us with Father Robert A. Sirico of the Acton Institute.  This was presumably due to the fact that both capitalists and adherents of the Just Third Way support the institution of private property . . . but that’s about as far as it goes, as today’s Guest Blogger, Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) explains in this slightly edited version of his response:

What They Should Have Read

It’s that time of year when various publications, online and off, come out with their lists of “best books of 2019,” some of which the people who said they read them might actually have done so.  A lot of the lists, however, sound more like books you leave on view so people will be impressed that you (presumably) read them than something they actually wanted to read.  And what better way to put hoi polloi in their places than to be asked for a list of books that you thought were the best?

The Challenge with Russell Williams

Yes, we know that today is Beethoven's Birthday, but we were unable to round up either Beethoven or Schroeder for an interview.  Instead, today we have a segment of the show, The Challenge, with your host, the Rev. Russell Williams, who presents the Just Third Way in a nutshell:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 50

It’s a little unclear about the details, but the Integrity Marketing Group, LLC, an insurance company, has declared it has an “Employee Ownership Plan” that gives “meaningful ownership” to its 750 employees.  The ownership structure and definition of “meaningful ownership” were not given, nor how the workers participate in share ownership, dividends, voting, or anything else — or the reaction of existing owners/shareholders.  Since the program was not described as an “Employee STOCK Ownership Plan,” the “ownership” could be like that of the “Scott Bader Commonwealth” that is “owned” by people with no defined ownership stake, i.e., not actual ownership as that is understood in law.  In other news:

The Decline and Fall of Reason

For the last couple of postings, “More on Fulton Sheen” and “Fulton Sheen and the Idea of Ideas,” we’ve been looking into the bruhaha (ha, ha, ha!) over the announced delay in the “beatification” of the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

Fulton Sheen and the Idea of Ideas

Yesterday, in the previous posting on this subject, we looked at one of the most important things the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen addressed in his work: the fact that God created human beings, not humanity.  We also noted that most people would be completely baffled by this distinction, not able to see the difference between the actuality of a child, woman, and man created by God, and the ideas of children, women, and men created by human beings.

More On Fulton Sheen

Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary of the death of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.  As some of our readers might be aware, Sheen (whom the Catholic Church considers “Venerable,” or two steps away from canonization or official recognition as a saint, as people in Heaven are called) was scheduled for “beatification” later this month.  As a “beatus” or “blessed,” Sheen would have been one stop away from official recognition as a saint.

JTW Vlogcast: Dave Hamill at the Lincoln Memorial

We're so used to hearing the voice of Dave Hamill, host of the Just Third Way podcast, that we might forget he's a real person and not just a disembodied Spirit of Change coming over the internet.  In today's podcast we decided to give everyone a treat and let them see Dave's smiling face as he gives a talk in 2013 in front of the Lincoln Memorial:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 49

We just got a notice from a religious watchdog group that we usually ignore as it tends to go as far in favor of religion as anti-religious counterparts do against it.  This time, however, they might have had a point: a push by certain anti-religious groups during the Christmas Season to convince people that freedom of religion is the single greatest threat to freedom that exists seems to be a little over the top.

College Versus Childcare

A think tank that shall remain nameless recently presented a study, the point of which was that free childcare is more important than free college.  At first glance this seems like heresy.  For around half a century at least, the constant mantra in the United States was to study hard, get into a good college and you’ll get a good job.  That is, assuming that there are any jobs to get, but that’s another issue. . . .

Capital Homesteading and Social Security

It’s amazing the stories people will tell when they have no idea what they are talking about.  For example, for years we’ve been hearing that the goal of the Just Third Way is to abolish wages (which are presumably absolutely secure) and force all workers to live on profit sharing alone.

Are the Computers Taking Over?

According to Ray Kurzweil and generations of science fiction writers, the human race is in a great deal of trouble.  In books and films he has warned of a coming “technological singularity.”  That is a hypothetical future point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in incomprehensible changes to civilization.

JTW Vlogcast: Why We Need Justice University (and Capital Homesteading)

According to Dr. Noriko H. Arai, in most countries today (although she was focusing primarily on Japan), students memorize vast amounts of data — which any computer can do better, e.g., “Watson” on the “Jeopardy Challenge” — but often fail to understand meaning, that is, they do not really comprehend what they “learn” in any meaningful sense.

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 48

With a holiday to break up the week, you would think there would be less important news to report.  On the contrary, however, there is more — as the information about Dr. Noriko Arai demonstrates:

Happy Thanksgiving . . . For What It's Worth. . .

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  No, this is not a Beatles retrospective, but our annual Thanksgiving Day greeting to all our loyal readers.  We're making a lot of gains, but sometimes it just seems a little slow . . . like roasting a turkey or something. . . .

Pillars of a Just Market Economy

The three principles of economic justice as stated by Louis O. Kelso and Mortimer J. Adler in Chapter 5 of The Capitalist Manifesto (1958) are hardly radical.  They are, in fact, in full conformity with the natural law and the founding principles of the United States.  Nevertheless, they had been introduced into a society in which Keynesian economics and New Deal politics were as solidly embedded as unquestionable as the population theories of the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus.

Why Keynesianism Promotes Waste and Consumerism

As we saw in the previous posting on this subject, John Maynard Keynes established his reputation as the World’s Greatest Economist™ by employing the simple expedient of telling people what they wanted to hear, regardless how goofy it ended up being once it was examined.  Take, for example, his claim that the only way to finance new capital formation is by reducing consumption and accumulating the excess production in the form of money savings.

Monetary Reform and the Younger Set

From the usual faces one sees in the Just Third Way Global Justice Movement, it's easy to get the impression that it's a bunch of retired academics and politicians (when they're not already departed this world) with nothing of relevance to say about the modern world.  You might get a different impression after viewing this video from a few years ago:

News from the Network, Vol. 12, No. 47

As the holiday season gets into full swing and companies and countries start to think about year end statements and declarations, important events in the Just Third Way may sometimes get overlooked.  Here are a few we think should not:

Counterfeiting for Fun and Profit

The late economist Irving Fisher, considered by the late Milton Friedman to be the greatest late economist America ever produced (a remarkable statement by Friedman), once said something to the effect that inflation was the same as “legal counterfeiting.”  The late Paul Samuelson reportedly echoed this sentiment, although we have not be able to find the source for either Fisher or Samuelson.  It doesn’t matter, though, because we agree with it, at least up to a point.

Greed is Good! Deceit is Delightful!

And now for something completely different!  Every so often we’ve made a reference to Dr. Milton Friedman’s appearance on the Phil Donohue Show and his comment that “greed is good.”  It turns out that Friedman wasn’t the only economist advocating the goodness of greed and its benefits for the human race.

A Global Monetary Standard?

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, occasionally we get questions from our readers the answers to which we think would make a good blog posting or two.  This particular set of questions came from someone in another country who wanted to know how we would go about establishing some kind of global standard for all the different currencies of the world.

Just Another Just Third Way Video

. . . or is it?  Today we bring you a video of the keynote speech given by Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) at the 2010 "Rally at the Fed", where a small band of concerned citizens attempted to tell increasingly deaf ears that the whole Keynesian paradigm is off-based, and only a system that truly respects the dignity of each and every human person, every child, every woman, and every man, has a chance of restructuring the social order in a more just manner without redistribution or other injustice: