To: Citizen's Income Online at URL http://citiinco01.uuhost.uk.uu.net/discussion/index.shtml and friends on several mail lists Hi folks, The previous post of 03/07/2000, A General Theory or A Red Herring, at (0 hrs), provoked five direct responses, plus only one subsequent posting to date to the CI discussion page by Werner Scott of Canada. Mr. Scott described several vested interests; including labor leaders, welfare workers, and social scientists, which are opposed to the consequences of an adequate Citizen's Income. That is to say, the opposition is to the decentralization of financial and political power which an adequate Citizen's Income would certainly produce. There are only a few such vested interests which depend completely for their efficacy on the social disorder of our present condition. It may be necessary to compensate those interests to moderate their opposition to the necessary reform, after the public has been persuaded that reform is necessary. I am much obliged to the five direct respondents for their thoughtful contributions to my understanding of why thirty years of my work on this topic have produced no measurable results, to date. A visit to the web site of each respondent, I can assure you, will be informative and well worth the time spent on the visit. Here are the six respondents and their web sites, in the order of their posting. ~~~~~~~~~~~ (nine hrs) Elias Davidsson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) URL: http://www.juscogens.org Mr. Davidsson seems satisfied that the wishful thinking and pious exhortation in the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an adequate statement of the technical requirements for distributive justice. See URL http://www.hri.org/docs/UDHR48.html for the UDHR. ~~~~~~~~~~~ (Ten hrs) Douglas P. Wilson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) URL: http://www.SocialTechnology.org/index.html Mr. Wilson says, I "might consult a style book" to improve my presentation of this Teflon Topic which has not been mentioned by social scientists in the US since Henry Carter Adams discussed "increasing returns to scale" in his 1887 essay, Relation Of The State To Industrial Action. ~~~~~~~~~~~ (Thirty-nine hrs) Jimmy Poulin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) URL: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/4061/scring.htm Mr Poulin writes: "Keep an open heart and mind and you will understand. Please observe and respect the nature of things." ~~~~~~~~~~~ (Forty hrs) Robin Gaskell ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) URL: http://black.cat.org.au Mr. Gaskell writes: "I tend to agree that Jimmy has identified a weakness in Wes' arguments." See also Mr. Gaskell's new mail list, [EMAIL PROTECTED], which is a workshop to formulate the new social order to replace CAPITALISM, and seems to be well on its way to doing just that. ~~~~~~~~~~~ (41 hrs) Dr. Gavin R. Putland (Comments posted to CI discussion Page) URL: http://www.users.bigpond.com/putland Dr. Putland took me to task for not promoting land value taxation as the cure for what ails us, but did agree with me on several other points. See also Jeffery J. Smith' writings on the Citizen's Dividend, land value taxes, and the Geonomy Society. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (106 hrs) Werner Scott (subsequent comments on vested interests posted to CI discussion Page which is apen to all at the URL above.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My favorite present, on my 76th birthday, March 14, was a random selection from Jimmy Poulin's Social Credit Web Ring, which landed on URL http://www.prolognet.qc.ca/clyde/Caesar.html This birthday present was an essay by Louis Even (1885-1974) based on Christ's answer to the question: (Matthew 22:17.) should we pay taxes to Caesar? The following excerpt gives a sense of the essay. >>>>> Begin Excerpt From "Taxes to Caesar?" by Louis Even <<<<<< So, what does belong to Caesar? We think it can be defined as follows: What is necessary to carry out his functions. This definition seems to be implicitly accepted by Caesar himself, by the government, since the government says to those who complain about the burden of taxes: "The more services people demand, the more means the government needs to provide these services." This is true. But in order to carry out his proper functions, Caesar must not have recourse to means that prevent people, families, from carrying out theirs. Besides, in order to increase his importance, Caesar is always tempted to take over functions that normally belong to the families, to lower organisms, and not to the State. Moreover, the citizens would not need so much the help of Caesar, if Caesar first removed an obstacle that only he can remove: the artificial obstacle created by a financial system that is not in keeping with the huge physical possibilities to satisfy the basic material needs of every individual, of every family of our country. Because Caesar does not correct this situation that only he can correct, Caesar then goes beyond his proper role and accumulates new functions, using them as a pretext for levying new taxes — sometimes ruinous ones — on citizens and families. Caesar thus becomes the tool of a financial dictatorship that he should destroy, and the oppressor of citizens and families that he should protect. >>>>> End Excerpt From "Taxes to Caesar?" by Louis Even <<<<<< Here Mr Even describes the "artificial obstacle" to a stable and prosperous society which can be corrected only by a proper feedback of the first tithe (10% of GNP) to parenting families for the education and support of under age dependents. Every nation does education adequately, but most nations act like Shylocks when it comes to the support expenditure for under age dependents which is an expense equal to that of universal public education in the US, or equal to the US defense budget, or equal to about 5% of the US GNP. I dearly wish this essay by Louis Even were also posted with the micro model, Figure 7-9, THE WHOLE DIVINE LAW, at URL http://www.freespeech.org/darves/bert.html and at, URL http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/3142/IR/items//19990119WesBurtSustaina bleFuture.html to explain Figure 7 to those folks who don't know what "feedback" means, and have never read about the three Mosaic tithes in our oldest and most widely published history book, the Bible. The message is the same for Protestants, Catholics, and Jews as it is written in the King James version of the Bible, the Douay version of the Bible, and the Pentateuch & Haftorahs by Dr. J. H. Hertz, C. H. late Chief Rabbi Of The British Empire. And that message is that national governments slowly destroy their power to govern when they withhold part of the first tithe for the purpose of maximizing the debt burden and tribute exacted from their citizens. This act of self immolation has forced the US labor market to operate for the last one hundred years with three systemic defects; a 5% of GNP deficiency of purchasing power among parenting families, a 4-10% rate of unemployment, and a 2-3%/year rate of inflation. The UK has been withholding the support part of the first tithe for 200 years, the US for only 100 years, and no Englishman or American WHIP dares to diagnose unemployment and inflation in a public forum. Now the odds are that I will be pushing up daises before a significant number of WHIPs from Pratt House and Chatham House decide to follow Mr. Robert S. McNamara's good example and admit that they were mistaken in their 20th century public policy. Even so, every time I get discouraged about this Teflon Topic, my faith is restored by some notice that other people are thinking, or have thought, as I do. One such notice was a Christmas present of the term, "noospheres," from Teilhard DE Chardin, by way of Robert Theobald, and Paul Swann on list [EMAIL PROTECTED] last December. An other such notice was my birthday present, above, from Louis Even by way of Jimmy Poulin's Social Credit Web Ring. And the most recent notice was a post to Robin Gaskell's new list, [EMAIL PROTECTED], from Alan Marshall who wrote, in part, concerning Option 3 (no connection to Tony Blair's third way): >>>>>>> Begin excerpt from Option 3 by Alan Marshall <<<<<<< Another common thread with all of our concerns is that they all relate to Quality of Life. Our concerns about economics or about money are really concerns about their effects on people. At this point we might refer to the works of John Rawls, University Professor of Philosophy at Harvard who wrote "Political Liberalism," a book about justice and about fairness, as a sequel to "A Theory of Justice." Rawls provides us with a sort of a template which we can use to evaluate alternative political or economic infrastructures in terms of their overall fairness in societies with a mixed population of varying backgrounds and differing values. Fairness is one of Rawls' key concepts and Freedom is another. I will get back to these in a minute. >From his (Rawls) works my conclusion is, that we must look for a strategy that lifts the 'Quality of Life' for everyone; not just for the needy but for all of humanity. But, if this is our objective a number of questions emerge: * Is it possible to lift 'Quality of Life' significantly, a) Without depleting natural resources and, b) Without increasing ecological stress * Could we lift the 'Quality of Life' for Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoc or George Soros? * And why on earth would we want to? There are two reason for believing we can significantly improve Quality of Life. First, it is not just about money, it is also about crowded conditions and stress and security and pollution and opportunities for contributing to society. These are the sorts of things that affect everyone, even the wealthy. Secondly, there are huge inefficiencies built into our existing economy. Look at how many people spend their working hours in efforts which don't contribute anything real to society. Banking, insurance, advertising, securities etc. all deal with artificial values that might be handled much more efficiently or might even be eliminated. If all the work people do could be contributing work there would be much more for everyone. So there are possibilities for helping everybody. As for why we would want to, if our proposals are seen to attack the rich and powerful we will create such resistance that it will make the job impossible. (Look at the experiences of Major Douglas, author of "Social Credit" back in 1923. He was perceived to be attacking the banking industry and his recommendations were never given a reasonable trial). >>>>>> End excerpt from Option 3 by Alan Marshall <<<<<<<< A second visit to Jimmy Poulin's Social Credit web ring provided two more contributions by authors who tried in vain to penetrate the establishment's in-depth defense of the status quo. Consider this first excerpt from "Applied Social Credit" at URL http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/4061/english/social_credit.htm >>>>>>>>>> Begin excerpt from "Applied Social Credit" <<<<<<<<<< A brilliant economic system analysis was made by a British engineer, major C. H. Douglas, (1879-1952), who invented social credit. C. H. Douglas also said that the founder of the social credit movement in Quebec, Louis Even, (1885-1974), was the one who best explained his views and principles. Among his many articles, and books on social credit, Louis Even became famous for his writing of the Salvation Island. A lot of people understood the lesson. Now, after decades of struggling, more and more people are taking concrete actions to implement real interest free monetary systems in society. >>>>>>>>>> End excerpt from "Applied Social Credit" <<<<<<<<<< This second excerpt from web ring page title: "From Parable To Reality" at URL http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/4061/english/even_e.htm also illustrates the futility of promoting this type of analysis with million of words, rather than with graphical models using real numbers. The global model at URL http://www.freespeech.org/darves/bert.html illustrates concisely the systemic defect of omission in industrial society, which C. H. Douglas, Louis Even, Elias Davidsson, Douglas P. Wilson, Jimmy Poulin, Robin Gaskell, Gavin R. Putland, John Rawls, and Michael Rowbotham have not fully discovered and disclosed in their writings. >>>>>>>>> Begin excerpt of "From Parable To Reality" <<<<<<<<<<< "Social Credit would distribute the dividend to everyone, directly, without charging it to industry. It would truly raise everyone's purchasing power. Besides being the recognition of a very productive community capital, this social dividend would at the same time be an excellent way of satisfying the primitive destination of the earthly goods. "Earth and its riches were created for all men" (Pie XII). What is totally ignored by the present economic regime is its financial technique of distribution. Social Credit would thus directly establish an adequate repartition of the goods of nature and of industry, instead of leaving the task to the surgery of taxation, that amputates and grafts continually, without ever healing the disease. A share to each and everyone, guaranteed by the dividend to each and everyone from birth till death; and this share should be sufficient to at least insure what is necessary for life. Louis EVEN" >>>>>>>>> End excerpt of "From Parable To Reality" <<<<<<<<<<< There seems to be a widespread fear that corporations are taking on a life of their own and gaining hegmony over governments and the people represented by the governments. This fear is projected by many mail lists and by well funded conferences which attract our best known authors. Here are the headlines of one such conference at URL http://www.nancho.net/bigmed2000/bbonline.html#list BIG BODY HEURISTICS ARE CORPORATIONS REALLY ALIVE? (Are they now our dominant species?) Living System Perspectives on Corporate Evolution, Anatomy and Eco-Social Pathologies LIST OF INVITED PARTICIPANTS (partial) (Capitalized surnames have been contacted and tentatively agreed to cooperate) Dean ALGER John Perry BARLOW Dee Hock * Joan BAVARIA Josh KARLINER Ernest CALLENBACH David KORTEN * Fritjof CAPRA * Frances Moore LAPPE Noam CHOMSKY * Lynn Margulis * Michael Crichton * James Grier MILLER Richard Dawkins Michael Moore Kevin DANAHER Ralph NADER * Charles DERBER John RENSENBRINK Ronnie DUGGER Howard RHEINGOLD Richard GROSSMAN Kirkpatrick SALE Randy HAYES Vandana Shiva Hazel HENDERSON * David Suzuki * Dave HENSON Robert WEISSMAN * Mae Wan HO David Sloan WILSON ~~~~~~~~~~ End Headlines of conference~~~~~~~~~~~~ My own understanding of corporations is that they go belly-up as soon as they fail to satisfy their customers with a steady flow of goods and services at competitive prices. There was a time when the Crown would establish corporations as monopolies, like the East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, and several of the American colonies which were chartered as corporations. But the corporations of today evolved to their present decentralized diversified financial structure beginning with Alfred Sloan's restructuring of General Motors in the 1920s, Ford's restructuring in the 1930s, and General Electric's decentralization program of the 1940s. The disorder in our industrial societies is not caused by our corporations becoming too powerful, the disorder and unbalance in our society has its roots in fact that we bring our people into the labor market as financial cripples, at the beginning (low end) of their productive capacity, loaded with the debt which each person incurs over the 16 to 27 year period of his/her development. The "needs" of the development phase of the life cycle can be satisfied by nothing else except some part of the value-added by other people who are in the productive phase of their life cycle. Parenting families have plenty to do while raising the next generation. There is no need for their government to also tax them into poverty, by withholding the rightful inheritance promised them by the first Mosaic tithe. The second tithe, of course, is for the WHIPs who are also commanded to pay the first tithe. And the third tithe is for infrastructure and community building. This sullen silence that you hear on the several mail lists and on the Citizen's Income discussion web site is the sound of Devious Defenders of the Status Quo (DDotSQ) and Bertrand Russell's "No Men" deciding whether, or not, they can wash away the macro model Figure 6 and the micro model Figure 7-9, at URL http://www.freespeech.org/darves/bert.html, with a torrent of words. They did wash away the proposals of Thomas Paine, Frederic Bastiat, Henry Carter Adams, C. H. Douglas, Louis Even, and Bertrand Russell, but none of these disappointed authors had an insight into the financial structure of a modern decentralized corporation nor an insight into the input/output analysis of Wassily Leontief which defines the configuration of the macro model Figure 6 and the micro model Figure 7-9. How many of the prominent authors listed for the conference on BIG BODY HEURISTICS will step up to the podium and claim that our present condition is the best possible condition and that there is nothing we can do to improve our present condition? Probably all of them, as long as the global model at URL http://www.freespeech.org/darves/bert.html remains a secret of the temple, proscribed for everyone except the WHIPs. Kind regards to the innocents and the DDotSQ, Wesburt
