On December 13, 2013, Bill Moyers writes on Nation Of Change:
Why are record numbers of Americans on food stamps? Because record numbers of Americans are in poverty. Why are people falling through the cracks? Because there are cracks to fall through. It is simply astonishing that in this rich nation more than 21 million Americans are still in need of full-time work, many of them running out of jobless benefits, while our financial class pockets record profits, spends lavishly on campaigns to secure a political order that serves its own interests, and demands that our political class push for further austerity. Meanwhile, roughly 46 million Americans live at or below the poverty line and, with the exception of Romania, no developed country has a higher percent of kids in poverty than we do. Yet a study by scholars at Northwestern University and Vanderbilt finds little support among the wealthiest Americans for policy reforms to reduce income inequality.
In one way or another, this is the oldest story in America: the struggle to determine whether “we, the people” is a moral compact embedded in a political contract or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others.
But there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens (something otherwise known as social justice) and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That can be the difference between democracy and plutocracy.
Nothing will change without implementing policies that are based on principles of economic and social justice, and which protect the current property interests now owned by the 1 to 5 percent of the population (up until their death). Moving forward, without taking anything from the current ownership class, new wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital must be formed and installed in the American economy using no-interest insured capital credit loan mechanisms that empower propertyless and under-capitalized citizens to acquire ownership shares in America’s successful private sector companies wanting to grow further. The loans would be repayable out of the future earnings of the investments. It is critical that we honor and adhere to the principles of private property, which our founding democracy and liberty are based on, and provide equal opportunity for EVERY citizen to accumulate over time a viable diversified portfolio of dividend earning stock ownership in America’s most successful companies.
The United States has serious structural problems, which is creating a continuous need for emergency “welfare” assistance because job prospects are increasingly not at a livable-wage level. This deplorable situation for some people in the population is a reason not to even seek employment. For many middle-class families, the American Dream can feel as though it’s slipping away. For others, it can seem lost for good. The reality for an increasing majority of Americans is working hard isn’t enough to make ends meet or to realize dreams for a more affluent life. The effect is to deteriorate morals, which will ultimately lead to upheaval, if not revolution.
At the root of this is the sinister invisible problem of CONCENTRATED OWNERSHIP, which will continue to widen the gap between the “haves” and the “havenots.” The indisputable fact is that tectonic shifts in the technologies of production are destroying jobs (thus expanding the available pool of workers competing with each other) and devaluing the worth of labor. With successful companies rapidly globalizing in their pursuit to lower operational costs and market to “customers with money,” American workers are left in an uncompetitive position as companies shift productive capital investment and employment to other countries where labor is less costly as well as are regulations and controls.
Because 99 percent of the American population are not the owners of the productive capital assets controlled by the companies owned by the 1 to 5 percent of the population, they therefore are not entitled to the earnings generated. The result is the consumer populous is increasingly not able to get the money to buy the products and services produced as a result of substituting machines for people. And yet you can’t have mass production without mass human consumption. It is the exponential disassociation of production and consumption that is the problem in the United States economy, and the reason that ordinary citizens must gain access to productive capital ownership to improve their economic well-being.
Otherwise, the United States will continue to evolve into a welfare state supported by tax extraction of the income accounts of those productive owners and well-paid salaried Americans and national debt, with redistributive welfare practiced openly and concealed. National debt has been used to prop up consumption and artificial stock values without properly using debt mechanisms to grow the economy and provide the financial means to create asset-based economic growth, that is self-financeable under terms that the ownership of newly formed productive capital is broadened to create “customers with money” earning profit dividends fully paid out to share owners.
Yet, you never hear conservatives or progressives advocate for broadened private sector individual ownership of productive capital assets simultaneously with the growth of the economy. Why?
Even if every American achieved a doctorate degree, there would still be not enough decent-paying job opportunities created to employ every American. This would not be a problem if the 90 million Americans who are unemployed and underemployed OWNED viable, diversified stock portfolios of major American companies who payed out to their stock holders their full earnings (profits). But that is not the reality. The vast 99 percent of Americans are job serfs or welfare serfs, with constantly declining prospects for income earnings tied to a job due to tectonic shifts in the technologies of production. The jobs that will provide a level of income to support survival, never mind general affluence, are just not there. And they won’t be coming back unless we reform the system to stimulate growth, broaden ownership, and create product and service demand by empowering EVERY citizen to become a “customer with money.”
Because for the vast majority of Americans a JOB is their ONLY source of income, millions of families are one layoff or family emergency away from going into bankruptcy, and then what? Start over with nothing and extremely poor JOB prospects.
Unfortunately, our political leaders, academia, and the national media offer up ONLY the same old conventional won’t-work suggestions for the government to take the lead and arrange the marriage of private and public capital to regenerate real growth without the realization and requirement that the ownership of FUTURE productive capital wealth must be broad. No longer will we achieve growth the old-fashioned way, by investing in projects that enrich our productive capacity and benefit the current wealthy ownership class in the name of JOB CREATION, which is expected to have a multiplier effect, when in actual reality such investment continues to further CONCENTRATE OWNERSHIP of America’s future wealth-creating, income-generating productive capital assets among a tiny ownership class.
Of course, all this would be moot if 1) all people were capital owners and the price of labor could rise or sink to its “real” level, 2) all financing for new, non-speculative capital investment came out of future savings (earnings) instead of past savings, and 3) government was prohibited from creating money (“emitting bills of credit”), living within its tax revenues, and borrowing out of existing savings to cover temporary shortfalls or meet emergencies.
That’s what “Capital Homesteading” would do.
Capital Homesteading is the ONLY viable solution to the economic decline of America and overcome class war. Its implementation requires that our leaders, academia and the national media recognize that all individuals to be adequately productive cannot do so when a tiny minority (capital owners) produce (via the productive assets they own) a major share and the vast majority (labor workers), a minor share of total output of the economy’s products and services. The system must be reformed to create a world in which the most productive factor of the FUTURE — physical capital — now owned by a handful of people — is owned by a majority — and ultimately 100 percent — of the consumers, while respecting all the constitutional and private property rights of present capital owners.
A balanced Just Third Way approach to building a FUTURE economy that supports general affluence for EVERY American is presently not in the national discussion. It appears that the President of the United States, the elected Congressional representatives and Senators, academia, and the media are oblivious to this principled solution that has the ingredients to power economic growth at double-digit GDP rates.
This goal requires investment in FUTURE wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital assets while simultaneously broadening private, individual ownership of the resulting expansion of existing large corporations and future corporations. Not only is employee ownership the norm to be sought wherever there are workers but beyond employee ownership the norm should be to create an OWNERSHIP CULTURE whereby EVERY American can benefit financially by owning a diversified SUPER IRA-TYPE Capital Homestead Account (CHA) portfolio of income-producing, full-voting, full-dividend payout securities in America’s expanding corporations and those newly created to produce the future products and services needed and wanted by society.
Those who read this and are in a position of influence should reach out to President Obama and the leadership of his Organizing for Action as well as to other political leaders, and call for them to convene a national discussion using the national media and social media, and our educational institutions, to open up a discussion on EVERY CITIZEN AN OWNER opportunity. We need fresh and inspired leaders who can educate on this issue at this time because academia, the media, and our so-called leaders are not addressing how people make money and the significance of OWNING wealth-creating, income-producing productive capital assets. We need to get people to understand that as with today, in the FUTURE we will continue to experience tectonic shifts in the technologies of production, which will destroy jobs and devalue the worth of labor. This is a crucial understanding because at present for the 99 percent of the nation a JOB is the ONLY source of income to support themselves and their families. We need political leaders who will commit to a government policy focus on OWNERSHIP CREATION. Jobs will result and naturally follow as the economy revs up to double-digit GDP growth and fully applies technological innovation and invention to shift from unnecessary labor toil to human-intelligent machines, super-automation, robotics, and digital computerized operations used to build a future economy that can support general affluence for EVERY citizen.
Essentially, the pressing need is for everyone in a position of influence to encourage President Obama to raise the consciousness of the America people by making his NUMBER ONE focus the introduction of a National Right To Capital Ownership Bill that restores the American dream of responsible property ownership as a primary source of personal wealth.
This is the solution to America’s economic decline in wealth and income inequality, which will result in double-digit economic growth and simultaneously broaden private, individual ownership so that EVERY American’s income significantly grows, providing the means to support themselves and their families with an affluent lifestyle and to financially sustain them in their retirement.
The Just Third Way Master Plan for America’s future is published at http://foreconomicjustice.org/?p=5797.
Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm.
For solutions see “Financing Economic Growth With ‘FUTURE SAVINGS’: Solutions To Protect America From Economic Decline” at NationOfChange.org http://www.nationofchange.org/financing-future-economic-growth-future-savings-solutions-protect-america-economic-decline-137450624.
Also see “The Income Solution To Slow Private Sector Job Growth” at http://www.nationofchange.org/income-solution-slow-private-sector-job-growth-1378041490.
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