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Basic Presentation on the Just Third Way (Outline)

1.     The Fundamental Issue:  Power

A.    Preamble, U.S. Constitution (“We the People…to form a more perfect Union, Establish Justice”)

B.    Virginia Declaration of Rights (“Life, Liberty with the Means of Acquiring…Property”)

C.    U.N. Declaration of Human Rights (Article 17)

 

2.     Power follows Property (Daniel Webster)

A.  Defining “power” and “property”

B.    The top 400 richest Americans own more than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. The 88 richest people in the world own more than the bottom 3.5 billion combined.

C.    How today’s system is structured to concentrate power and property

D.   Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton)

E.    Who should have economic power in a democratic, market-based system?

 

3.     Changing the system to empower every member of society, without infringing on the basic property rights of today’s wealthy elite

A.    3 things that are good servants but bad masters: Fire, Government and Money

B.    Understanding “money” and its social purpose

i.      Definition of money

ii.     The right way to create money (for production, not consumer debt or speculation)

iii.   Escaping the slavery of past savings, by financing growth through access to future savings

 

4.     The Just Third Way: Principles of Justice for changing the economic system to de-monopolize power and lift exclusionary barriers to universal participation in capital ownership

A.    Sovereignty of Each One (Power in a just social order begins with every human person)

B.    Two Basic Inputs to Production: “Labor” (all human input) and “Capital” (all non-human input)

C.    The Three Principles of Economic Justice

i.      Participative Justice (input principle—equal opportunity to provide one’s Labor and Capital)

ii.     Distributive Justice (out-take principle—based on the value of one’s inputs, vs. charity)

iii.   Social Justice (feedback/corrective principle—lift barriers; discourage monopolies and greed)

D.   Four Pillars of a Just Economic System

–     3 of these 4 principles are accepted by conservatives

–     The fourth principle is what is missing (the moral omission)

–     Without the fourth principle, the first three can’t operate or be sustained

i.      Economic power shifted from the State to all citizens

ii.     Restoration of the full rights of property

iii.    Free and competitive markets for determining just wages, prices and profits

iv.    Lift barriers to equal opportunity and equal access to the means to acquire and own capital

 

5.     Capital Homesteading: Reforms to Democratize Power and Ownership and End Federal Deficits

A.    Monetary reforms (re-activate Section 13 (2) of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913)

B.    Tax reforms (move to single tax rate with exemptions on all sources of personal income)

C.    Inheritance reform (tax the recipient, not the estate, to encourage spreading of estate assets)

D.   Projected Impact of Capital Homesteading (example: child born today through age 65)

 

6.   Conclusion

A.  A timeless and universal truth: “Own or be Owned”

B.  Today’s moral and strategic imperative: Win the War of Ideas by elevating and applying universal concepts of Justice, and reform systems to spread power and property to every person.

C.  Now…what are we going to do about it?