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Curing World Poverty: The New Role of Property (Summary)

The Disease:

Too Few Own the Wealth of Nations,
Too Many Own Nothing.


The Cure:

Create Property for the Poor,
Without Taking Existing Property from the Rich.

 

Summary

For decades governments, organizations and individuals throughout the world have tried to solve the intertwined problems of poverty, hunger, and social injustice. Yet these conditions persist, both in underdeveloped and developed countries.

In 1991 an ecumenical delegation of the Center for Economic and Social Justice held a conference in Rome for Catholic leaders and scholars. Its focus was expanded capital ownership as an antidote to the scourge of global poverty.

The result was a collaborative effort, entitled Curing World Poverty: The New Role of Property. Published by the Social Justice Review in January 1994, this collection features writings by leading scholars, practitioners and corporate executives.

Curing World Poverty envisions a more just and growth-oriented economic system that is in harmony with the universal principles reflected in all religions and ethical systems, including the Catholic Church’s teachings on private property and the ownership of the means of production (Laborem Exercens).

This book shows how, by restructuring key social institutions, every person and family could become economically empowered through a direct ownership stake in the technological frontier.

For policymakers, educators and decisionmakers . . . for leaders in business, labor and government . . . for all groups and individuals concerned with issues of peace and justice–Curing World Poverty presents principles for effecting just social change. It offers new solutions to a global crisis which has defied solutions under traditional economic frameworks. Curing World Poverty offers a systemic yet achievable cure to world poverty.

Partial List of Contents

“Papal Tradition on Distribution of Ownership”
by Rev. Matthew Habiger, O.S.B., Ph.D., Executive Director, Human Life International, and author of Papal Teaching on Private Property 1891-1981.

“Uprooting World Poverty: A Job for Business”
by Louis O. Kelso, philosopher-economist, author on expanded capital ownership, and inventor of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan; and Patricia Hetter Kelso, co-author.

“Reevaluating Private Enterprise”
by Lorenzo Servitje Sendra, Mexican business statesman and author of Contemporary Society and the Entrepreneur and Thoughts and Comments of a Business Leader.

“The Binary Economics of Louis Kelso”
by Robert Ashford, professor of law at Syracuse University and authority on securities and banking law.

“Capital Credit: The Ultimate Right of Citizenship”
by Dr. Kathy V. Friedman, sociologist and author of Legitimation of Social Rights and the Western Welfare State: A Weberian Perspective.

“Beyond ESOP: Steps Toward Tax Justice”
by Norman G. Kurland, lawyer-economist, international ESOP investment banker, and designer of laws and social technologies for economic empowerment.

“Value-Based Management: A Framework for Equity and Efficiency in the Workplace”
by Dawn K. Brohawn, ownership participation consultant and Director, Center for Economic and Social Justice.

“The Third Way: America’s True Legacy to the New Republics”
by Norman G. Kurland and Michael D. Greaney, C.P.A., Equity Expansion International, Inc.

 

Curing World Poverty: The New Role of Property

© Social Justice Review, 1994. All rights reserved.

Edited by Rev. John H. Miller, C.S.C., S.T.D.

320 pages.