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Binary Economics

The economic logic of the Just Third Way is expressed by the theory of binary economics first articulated by Louis Kelso, and the three principles of economic justice that Kelso and philosopher Mortimer Adler defined in their first book, The Capitalist Manifesto.

Binary economics, a justice-based free market theory, recognizes the changing relationship between “labor” (human input) and “capital” (non-human input) in economic growth and the production and distribution of goods and services. This change has been accelerating as advanced technology displaces human labor in many sectors of the economy.

Binary economic theory builds upon “four pillars of a just market economy”:

  1. Limited economic power of the state, whose duty is to police abuses, enforce contracts, prevent monopolies, and lift barriers to full participation;
  2. Restoration of the full rights of private property;
  3. Free and open markets for determining just prices, just wages, and just profits; and
  4. Universal access to the means of acquiring capital ownership (the moral omission in all conventional schools of economics).

For some recommended readings on Binary Economics, click here >>