Property, Power and Justice for Every Person

Property, Power and Justice for Every Person -ICHAEL$'REANEYs$AWN+"ROHAWN Property, Power and Justice for Every Person Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn Justice University Press Center for Economic and Social Justice Center for Economic and Social Justice Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A. Justice University Press Published by Justice University Press, an imprint of the Center for Economic and Social Justice P. O. Box 40711, Washington, D.C. 20016 U.S.A. (Tel) 703-243-5155 • (Fax) 703-243-5935 (Eml) [email protected] • (Web) www.cesj.org © 2020 Center for Economic and Social Justice All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other- wise, without the prior written permission of the Center for Eco- nomic and Social Justice, except for brief excerpts for fair use and in reviews. International Standard Book Number: 978-0-944997-13-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946637 Cover design by Rowland L. Brohawn HG7CEFT CG4 %CA4 458B8G8CBF 0B3 29BCP@4364A4BGF This book was written in response to a request to explain to the Catholic hierarchy, clergy, and scholars the fundamentals of economic personalism and how this relates to a conceptual framework called the “Just Third Way.” The Just Third Way offers a fundamental alternative to the two prevailing socio-economic paradigms of capitalism and socialism/communism and their hybrids. We have therefore stressed broad concepts and historical developments over tech- nical details and specific applications of principles. While the book was being written, we realized that it could also serve to introduce the subject to the Catholic laity as well as to people of other faiths and philosophies. We have therefore tried to clarify specifically Catholic terms and concepts, especially those relating to the development of Catholic teaching in social and economic justice. Fortunately, there is common ground, since Catholic social teaching (like that of most faiths and philosophies) is based on the natural law as reflected in our human nature. While this book has our names on the cover, it is the result of the collaborative work of many people over many years whose ideas have gone into the development of the Just Third Way of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ). Of particular note are Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of CESJ and pioneer in the global development of the Just Third Way paradigm of socio-economics, Em- ployee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and expanded capital ownership monetary and tax reforms, and Tomasz Pompowski, Strategic Communications Specialist, who is a former Vatican journalist and translator for Lech Wałęsa. Tom was a field producer for the docu- mentary film Nine Days That Changed the World (2010) and gave us access to some of his research notes about Pope Saint John Paul II. Although they are explained in the text, it is useful to define three key terms here to help orient the reader: The Just Third Way. Within the economic context, a free market system based on principles of economic justice and the equal dignity, rights, and opportunity of each human person. All social institutions are structured to empower economically every person through the de- mocratization of money and credit for new production, thereby providing universal access to direct ownership of future income-pro- ducing capital and protection of private property rights of all owners. This socio-economic paradigm offers a logical “third alternative” to iv Economic Personalism the two predominant paradigms today — capitalism and socialism/communism. Personalism. A school of thought, or intellectual movement, which focuses on the reality of each person’s unique dignity and pro- motes the fundamental human rights of each human person. Person- alism also recognizes the social nature of human beings, who as members of groups create institutions to support each person’s wellbeing and dignity. Personalism rejects the idea that the State or any form of society or collective creates rights; it posits that rights are inherent in each human being. Personalism seeks the empowerment and full development of every person, not only to realize one’s own human po- tential and individual good, but also to be liberated and educated to work for the good of others and for the common good. It offers principles for restructuring social, political and economic institutions and laws toward that end. Economic Personalism. An economic system centered on the dignity and economic empowerment of each person. It recognizes that life, dignity, and liberty require that each person have the power and independent means to support and sustain one’s own life, dignity and liberty — i.e., through one’s private property rights. Economic personalism aims to diffuse economic power structurally by democratiz- ing access to capital ownership for each person. As this book is meant to be merely an introduction to the Just Third Way of economic personalism, we have deliberately limited it to a broad treatment of basic principles, moral philosophy and general economic concepts. Because of that, some statements may come across as assertion, but giving detailed explanations here would have required a multi-volume work instead of a brief presentation. In- depth treatments of selected topics will be found in the materials listed in the Selected Bibliography and Resource Guide in the back of the book. Throughout this book the goal has been analogous to that sought by Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld (1879-1918) with respect to jurispru- dence in Fundamental Legal Conceptions (1919). That is, to isolate and identify basic concepts of Catholic social teaching, making it pos- sible to define issues more precisely and develop solutions consistent with the principles of natural law and the Gospels. Readers familiar with the work of CESJ will recognize much they have seen before. Two exceptions are Chapters 1 and 2, which were summarized from an upcoming book on the origins and development Authors’ Note v of social justice, and Chapter 3, based in part on material previously unavailable in English. Note on the text: except where it is obvious from the context, the terms “man,” “he,” “his,” and so on, refer to all human persons and are not restricted to adult human males. Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn Center for Economic and Social Justice Preface ix 1. The Question of the Person 1 2. Something Missing 19 3. A Theory of Human Dignity 33 4. Seeking the Good 45 5. The Political Animal 55 6. Sacred and Inviolable 67 7. The Economics of Reality and Justice 77 8. Three Principles of Economic Justice 91 9. Four Policy Pillars 103 10. Five Levers of Change 115 Closing Comments 125 Questions for Discussion 129 Selected Bibliography and Resource Guide 131 Index 135 $D)1 Nearly five years before the Soviet Union officially dissolved, an historic meeting took place that escaped the world’s notice and barely survived a last-minute cancellation. At the time even the participants in the meeting missed its full significance. On February 9, 1987, representatives of President Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice (PEJ), including founders of the interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice who conceived the Task Force, had assembled at the Vatican with members of the Polish Solidarity Movement (Solidarność). They had been granted a private audience with His Holiness Pope John Paul II. Headed by Norman G. Kurland, Deputy Chairman of the Task Force and President of CESJ, the delegation had traveled from the U.S. and Poland to present to His Holiness the bipartisan Task Force’s report, High Road to Economic Justice. (This unanimous report was later delivered to President Reagan in a White House cere- mony on August 3, 1987.) The PEJ report offered a peaceful, justice-based strategy to counter the spread of Marxist-Leninism throughout Central America and the Caribbean region by promoting worker ownership through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs). Solidarność members had translated into Polish the Project Economic Justice orientation book, Every Worker an Owner, and had distributed 40,000 copies throughout the country. Earlier, when the delegation’s U.S. contingent had arrived at the airport in Rome, they were told that their meeting with the pope had been canceled. The delegation had been “bumped” at the last minute by a head of state requesting a papal audience. Upon receiving this disappointing news, Rabbi Herzel Kranz, head of an orthodox Jewish congregation in Silver Spring, Maryland and a key figure in the formation of the Presidential Task Force, sprang into action. He convinced the organizer of the papal audience, the Very Reverend Cassian Yuhaus, C.P. (former head of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate), to appeal to His Excellency then- Archbishop Achille Silvestrini to intercede. Archbishop Silvestrini, the Vatican’s Secretary of State for Public Affairs and a close friend of Fr. Cassian’s, agreed to do what he could. The delegation was squeezed into the pope’s busy schedule. x Economic Personalism His Holiness warmly received the members of the delegation out- side his private library and encouraged them in their work. He also recommended that they collaborate with His Eminence Roger Cardi- nal Etchegaray, President of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, to educate Vatican scholars on the ideas contained in the Task Force report. Over the next several years, with now-Cardinal Silvestrini’s support and Fr. Cassian’s counsel, CESJ continued to build connections within the Vatican with officials including Paul Cardinal Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council on Culture.

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