Keynesian Economics and Income Distribution

Occasionally, we get a question from a reader that forces us to think . . . what on Earth Keynes and his disciples thought they were doing and what they are still trying to do with Keynes’s backwards economics.  Recently we received the following question:

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle’s Theory of Happiness

Someone (actually a lot of someones) told they deserved to be “happy.”  Since that usually involved wrecking someone else’s life to get something they wanted, it is hard to see how anyone deserves to be “happy” under those conditions.  What, however, if happiness meant something other than merely satisfying your own selfish desires?

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 19

The news items speak for themselves, so all we’ll say this week is that someone soon ought to realize the only way out of the current mess is to adopt the Economic Democracy Act:

The Keynesian Fairy State

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

One of the first things a student must learn about Keynesian economics is there are certain questions one must not ask, such as, How could Keynes reject Say’s Law of Markets when he couldn’t even define it correctly?  What did it mean when Keynes declared inflation — which means a rise in the price level — isn’t really inflation until after “full employment” is reached, and that a rise in the price level before reaching full employment is due to “other factors” and isn’t really inflation . . . meaning a rise in the price level isn’t really a rise in the price level until Keynes said it is a rise in the price level?

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Reading Aristotle Backwards

Yes, we know some people have enough trouble reading Aristotle (or anyone or anything else) frontwards, but in this instance, Mortimer Adler has some interesting points to make:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 18

Week after week, one thing becomes crystal clear (as if it hadn’t already): Keynesian economics isn’t working and has never worked . . . but the politicians and so-called experts insist with all their heart and our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor that it’s going to work, or they’re going to see that we die while they try.  Or they could do the sensible thing and adopt: the Economic Democracy Act:

The Theory of Certitude

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Socialism as promoted by Robert Owen, Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, François-Marie-Charles Fourier, and others, sought to abolish traditional concepts of private property, marriage and family, and religion.  In their place would be new institutions that might go by the same name and even have the same outward form as the old institutions (Saint-Simon, for instance, called his system, “the New Christianity”), but the substance would be completely different.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Aristotle

Aristotle Made Easy?  Mortimer Adler explains why he titled one of his later books with such an intimidating title.  Intimidating?  Yes — whenever we see something “made easy”, we suspect the subject is so difficult we’re being lured into something we will never understand.  In this case, however, it is almost the right title, because once you understand Aristotle’s underlying assumptions, it really does become “easy” (sort of):

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

One thing becomes clear looking over the week’s news items: the so-called experts have no idea what they’re doing or even what they’re talking about.  We do know what we’re talking about, and what we’re talking about is an economic reform package that has been proven to work: the Economic Democracy Act:

The Financial Revolution

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Few people — at least those of us who are not wealthy — would argue that there is something seriously wrong with the money system in the world today.  Most people, however, either dismiss matters as “the way things are (and whatcha gonna do ’bout it?)” or assume it’s due to some conspiracy or other.

JTW Podcast: The Front Line with Joe & Joe

Michael D. Greaney & Dawn K. Brohawn have co-authored the book: The Greater Reset, which traces the historical, religious, political, and economic roots of humanity’s perilous condition today … and how returning to God-given principles of natural law can help build a more just, liberating, prosperous, and hopeful future for every person:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 16

Just in case you thought the experts and politicians know what they’re doing, we bring you selected news items that suggest they have no idea which end is up.  If they did, they would quickly adopt the Economic Democracy Act to get away from the nonsense and establish a sound and sustainable economy:

The Age of Revolution

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

To oversimplify somewhat, three revolutions have led to the alienation of most people from the institutions of the common good by stripping them of power. The first two did this almost inadvertently by limiting access to social and technological tools, while the third did it by the nature of the change itself. These were,

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Happiness

Mortimer Adler on happiness, and why it might not be exactly what you think.  How do we live, and how do we live well?

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 15

We seem to have more than the usual numbers of contradictions in the stories in the media, but still no one considers adopting the Economic Democracy Act to get away from the nonsense and establish a sound and sustainable economy:

The Political Animal

Today’s blog posting is adapted from the book, Economic Personalism, which you can get free from the CESJ website, or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

As we noted in the previous posting on this subject, being true to oneself means conforming to one’s human nature.  By doing so, people become more fully human by acquiring and developing virtue (“human-ness”).  If done at all, this is the work of a lifetime and the hardest path to follow.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution

We have a real treat in store for you today: Mortimer Adler on the U.S. Constitution, which many people do not realize is in very close conformity with Aristotelian-Thomist philosophy:

News from the Network, Vol. 17, No. 14

As usual, there are many problems in the world we report on this week that would either be greatly alleviated or eliminated entirely with the adoption of the Economic Democracy Act:, but the big job is convincing the powers-that-be it is a good idea and to get moving on it:

Dorothy Jean Fry Previc, R.I.P.

Dawn K Brohawn, Guest Blogger

Recently CESJ was saddened to learn of the death on March 17, 2024 of our member and long-time supporter Dorothy Jean Fry Previc.  A resident of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, Dorothy graduated from T.C. Williams High School, Alexandria, VA, attended Mary Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA.

JTW Podcast: Mortimer Adler on Goodness

Today we have Mortimer Adler’s lecture on “Goodness” . . . which might not be as straightforward as it sounds . . . no, it's not an April Fool's joke: