Contents
[condensed]
Executive Summary
Introduction
Flaws in the Foundation • Social Security and Enron • Social Security and the Wealth Gap • Addressing the Social Security Problem from a Systems Perspective
I. The Proposal in Brief
A Capital Homesteading Solution for Social Security • Re-Envisioning the Future of Social Security • How Would Capital Homesteading Work? • Insuring Minimum Social Security and Medicare Benefits....
II. The Concept of Capital Homesteading
The Historical Roots of Capital Homesteading • Support for Capital Homesteading • Obstacles to Capital Homesteading • A Free Market Way To Generate Mass Purchasing Power • The Systems Logic for Spreading Ownership Incomes • The Four Pillars of a More Free and Just Market System: A New Policy Framework....
III. An Overview of Capital Homesteading
IV. Policy Objectives of Capital Homesteading
V. Basic Vehicles for Democratizing Capital Credit
The Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) • The Capital Homesteading Account (CHA) • The Community Investment Corporation (CIC) • The Customer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP)
VI. Supporting Vehicles for Facilitating Capital Homestead Loans
A New Type of “Fannie Mae” for Bundling Capital Homesteading Loans • Managing Risk Through Capital Credit Insurance and Reinsurance • Capital Portfolio Insurance
VII. Reforming the Money and Credit System
Capital Credit: A Better Way to Finance Private Sector Growth •
Creating Money: The Role of the Federal Reserve System • Moving from a Debt-Backed to an Asset-Backed Currency • Detailed Monetary Reforms for Implementing Capital Homesteading....
VIII. Reforming the Tax System
The Purpose of Taxation • Direct or Indirect Taxation • Rates of Taxation • Earned or Unearned Income • Individual Capital Accumulations • Government Debt and Government Deficits • Inheritance Policy • Integration of Personal and Corporate Income Taxes • Capital Gains Taxation • Tax Simplification • Detailed Tax Reforms for Implementing Capital Homesteading....
IX. Other Policy Reforms
Fiscal Policy Reforms • Public and Private Employee Retirement System Reforms • Privatizing Government Enterprises and Services • Anti-Monopoly Reforms • Super Empowerment Zones • Environmental Protection Reforms • Multinationals and Foreign Assistance....
X. A New Social Contract for Creating an Ownership Culture
What Can We Learn From ESOP Failures? • Justice-Based Management • The New Role of the Labor Movement and Wall Street....
XI. Recommendations for Next Steps
XII. Conclusion: Building a Nation of Owners
Plus: Notes • GLOSSARY • Bibliography • Appendices • INDEX
Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen
A Just Free Market Solution for Saving Social Security
by Norman G. Kurland, Dawn K. Brohawn, Michael D. Greaney
© 2004 Center for Economic and Social Justice. Published by Economic Justice Media. Paperback, 256 pages.
“[A] superb study of social security reform. If the plan were to be converted into public policy it would not only cure the social security crisis, it would transform the United States economically and socially, turning a nation of employees into a nation of owners of productive capital.”
Dr. Norman A. Bailey, Senior Fellow, the Potomac Foundation and former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan for International Economic Affairs
“The idea is a vast one, but it recommends itself as a strong private sector alternative to retirement under Social Security, which is not going to survive. It expands the principle of capital ownership and thereby fortifies the U.S. middle class.”
Curtin Winsor, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica
and Board Member of the William H. Donner Foundation
“This report is a seminal contribution to any serious discussion of freedom, opportunity and responsibility in the United States and the world. Building upon the concept of binary economics as first advanced by Louis Kelso, this report could serve as the basis of a much-needed debate, carrying us beyond the arbitrary restrictions of current intellectual habits.”
Richard W. Boone, Director of Project for Participatory Democracy of the Tides Center and former Executive Director of the Citizens Crusade Against Poverty
“A provocative perspective on a fast-emerging financial challenge that policy-makers in both major parties refuse to address: the retirement needs of the nation’s largest-ever retiree generation, the Baby Boomers.”
Jeff Gates, author of The Ownership Solution
and President of Shared Capitalism Institute
