[GJM] #846, An Open Letter to All Communities in Behalf of a Ron Paul / Dennis Kunicich "Third Party" for 2008

[wesburt at juno.com]

Mr Thomas E. Woods has done all of us a favor.  
He opened a worthy topic for debate when he 
wrote in his open letter below: "Ron Paul believes 
in a little something called subsidiarity, which 
happens to be a central principle of Catholic 
social thought."  

My interest in the principle of "subsidiarity," as 
the foundation of successful decentralization, 
dates from 1947 and a minor participation in 
the General Electric Company's decentralization 
program. In 1953, GE's new product program to 
automate the dispatching function on electric 
power grids added a new dimension to the 
principle of subsidiarity by allowing the "grid price" 
for power (Cents/KW-hr) to be represented by the 
current "time error" of the grid.  In this application of 
subsidiarity, all local data on costs and operating 
conditions could be inserted in the controller located 
at each power plant, thereby eliminating the 
communication burden of data flowing up to a 
central computer and operating instructions flowing 
down from the central computer to the local plants.

Recall that GE has more decentralized product lines 
than there are national economies in the global economy. 
And there are more sovereign corporations in the US 
power grid than there are sovereign nations in the global 
economy. The lesson to be taken, from this experience 
with large decentralized systems, is that system stability 
can be achieved only by making each local unit stable.  
System stability and prosperity evolve from the bottom up 
toward the command center, not from the command center 
down to the bottom.  Even so, decentralization or 
democracy cannot be sustained without the "Whole 
Divine Law" as presented in attached Figure 7-9m.gif.

The second visual aid, Fig12o.gif. summarizes the 
success and failure of our western tradition to establish 
stable and sustainable societies.  The idea of delegating 
all functions of a government or corporation to the 
lowest level of organization capable of performing the
function (subsidiarity) is usually effective when applied 
to repetitive production activity.  But when development 
functions are forced to the lowest level (subsistence and
education of children entirely from the income of parenting 
families) a two class society naturally evolves with many 
poor and a few wealthy.  That has been the condition of 
society from the Folly Of Rehoboam, B.C. 975, to date. 
An alternate proposal; began with Spinoza, 1670, and 
continued through Pope Leo X III, 1891, with later 
encyclical letters authorizing children's allowances in 
Europe but not in the United States.  While reading the 
excerpt, please recall the order in which each of our five 
western religions presumed to become the custodians 
of the truth which would set men free: Judaism B.C. 975, 
Catholicism C.E. 4xx, Islam C.E. 14xx, Protestantism 
C.E. 16xx.  

Below the excerpt from Mr. Woods' open letter, I will 
try again to show that TOP has been willfully omitted 
from the curriculum in US schools and colleges since 
the AEA abandoned its founding principles in 1898.  
As I say in the signature below: "TOP and TWP are 
cognoscible by sixth graders."  What keeps the rest of 
you silent on the difference between The Optimum 
Policy (TOP) and The Wrong Policy (TWP)?  

C. S. Lewis answered that question concisely when 
he had his 1941 Senior Devil, Screwtape, say:

        "It is funny how mortals always picture us as 
        putting things into their minds:  in reality our 
        best work is done by keeping things out."

Only the lower end of the income distribution, 
the many, have things kept out of their mind.  
Why else would the upper end of the income 
distribution, the few, insist on supporting, 
and controling, public education?  

On 21 Nov 07, Thomas E. Woods, Jr., posted to 
LewRockwell.com "An Open Letter to the Catholic 
Community." He wrote, in part:  ( Full Text at:
------http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods83.html)
 
~~~~~~~~~~~ Begin excerpt ~~~~~~~~
In the tradition of Walter Block’s Open Letter 
to the Jewish Community in Behalf of Ron Paul 
( http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block88.html )
and Laurence Vance’s Open Letter to the 
Protestant Community in Behalf of Ron Paul, 
( http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance-arch.html )
I’d like to say a few words to my fellow Catholics.
Never in my life have I felt as strongly about 
a presidential candidate – or about any politician, 
for that matter – as I do about Dr. Ron Paul, 
Republican congressman from Texas. I’ve gone 
from being someone so disgusted with 
politics that I can’t bear to read about it to 
being a political junkie, avidly following the 
activities and successes of this great man."
~~~ Snip a few paragraphs on Integrety 
                          and Catholic Teaching ~~~~

"Ron Paul – as did the Republican Party itself 
not so long ago – opposes any federal role in 
education, which is the responsibility of parents 
and local communities.
In other words, Ron Paul believes in a little 
something called subsidiarity, which happens 
to be a central principle of Catholic social thought. 
Subsidiarity holds that all social functions should 
be carried out by the most local unit possible, as 
opposed to the dehumanizing alternative whereby 
distant bureaucratic structures are routinely 
and unthinkingly entrusted with more and more 
responsibilities for human well-being.
On home schooling, Ron Paul has proposed 
legislation giving tax credits worth thousands 
of dollars to reimburse the educational 
expenses of home-schooling parents, as well 
as those of parents who send their children 
to other kinds of schools. What presidential 
candidate speaks like this? [Only Ron Paul]
Parental control of child rearing, especially 
education, is one of the bulwarks of liberty. 
No nation can remain free when the state 
has greater influence over the knowledge 
and values transmitted to children than the 
family. By moving to restore the primacy of 
parents to education, the Family Education 
Freedom Act will not only improve America’s 
education, it will restore a parent’s right to 
choose how best to educate one’s own 
child, a fundamental freedom that has 
been eroded by the increase in federal 
education expenditures and the 
corresponding decrease in the ability of 
parents to provide for their children’s 
education out of their own pockets.
~~~~ End Excerpt from "Open Letter to 
                         the Catholic Community" ~~~~


I have met a few people who believe that 
payment of their local real estate taxes 
should end when their children graduate 
from the public school system.  But 1-12 
grades of universal public education has 
enjoyed strong US public support since the 
early nineteenth century.  Some folks hate 
government and want education to be 
provided by vouchers and private schools, 
but very few want the $6,500/year per 
student expense shifted from local taxes 
to the budget of parenting families.   
However, the $5,000/year expense of 
subsistence for each dependent child 
(Richard C. Cook, a frequent contributor 
to Global Research, put this expense at 
$10,000/year), evokes a very different 
response from parenting families.  They 
accept a small exemption/child from 
taxable income, at their current tax rate, 
and pay the $5,000/year, or more, for each 
dependent. They are oblivious of the fact 
that this 3% of GDP shift of a preproduction 
expense from public funding to the budgets 
of parenting households is the systemic 
defect which has controlled US public affairs 
since "The Great Transformation" of 1898.

Since 1898, the symptoms of this defect 
have been: 
1, Our steady and increasing rate of inflation.
(See Figures 10c and 10e for CPI profiles)
2, Our 4%, or higher, rate of unemployment;
3, Our neglect of our infrastructure and 
capital plant in favor of financial speculation.
(See Figure 1 for our 1994 condition vs other 
nations, plotted against total tax rate.)
4, Our trend, since the Civil War, toward 
carpetbagging shylocks in government 
and management. (Read the Washington Post)

It should be clear by now that "subsidiarity," 
when applied to human development, is TWP 
(the wrong policy).  TOP (the optimum policy) 
was proposed by Thomas Paine in 1792, as a 
circulating fund disbursed to parenting families 
and replentished by estate taxes. TOP was 
proposed again by Pope Leo X III in Rerum 
Novarum, 1891, as the Christian duty of 
employers to pay a family wage.  It would 
have taken a heroic effort by John Bunzl's SP 
(Simultaneous Policy project) to persuade 
employers to pay a "family wage," but SP 
was not published until 2001 and has not 
yet addressed this topic.  Bertrand Russell 
proposed TOP in his 1915, "Principles of 
Social Reconstruction," and C. H. Douglas 
in 1925 proposed a Social Dividend and 
Compensated Price (negative sales tax) to 
constitute a complete expression of the 
optimum policy (TOP) which is documented 
in the Pentateuch as the First (Lord's) Tithe
for local government and public education. 

The second and third tithes, added by Moses 
442 years later as noted on Figure 7-9m.gif, 
are like the second and third 10% increment 
of today's (30% of sales) corporate G&A rate.
In the Bible, critics call the second and third 
a power grab by the "Thirteenth Tribe."  In the 
corporation, Karl Marx called the second and 
third "surplus value."  On Figure 4, The Macro 
Model (Flow of money M1c through any economy), 
I called: two, "Executive Compensation," and 
three, "Intereat and Dividends," as shown by 
Figure 15Hixon.gif at Dr. W. Curtiss Priest's URL 
in the signature below.
.
I have grown old saying these same things over 
and over since FORTUNE published Figure 10c 
in an October 1966 article on INFLATION.  Here 
is the latest word from list Fix-Gov.

On Sun, 25 Nov., T K Wilson joined Ashok, Urban & Mary Rose 
in discussing the future prospects of the USA. He wrote,in part: 

        "The transition from a rural based largely agrarian society 
        to an urban based industrial society in this country, and 
        its concomittant socio/psychic deterioration, is worth 
        studying. I think it would be highly instructive.

        I don't know what the answer to your question is Urban.
        After only 4 years of plague, and losing some large part 
        of its population in the 1300's, Europe ended up in the 
        toilet for a very long time. We are faced with multiple 
        plagues and social/financial dislocation on a global scale, 
        right now. It really promises to be massive.

        Right, wrong or indifferrent, certain cultural "seeds" 
        were maintained by the Roman Catholic monastic 
        system through the "Dark Ages". Personally I don't 
        think the world ended up being a better place because 
        of it; but the point is, with collective effort, seeds of 
        "our" choosing can make it through the coming dark 
        ages, assuming humanity survives this one at all."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End the latest word ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looking again at the history of western civilization as
presented on Figure 12o.gif, our present condition is 
shown at the top of the page.  The global private sector 
is approaching a uniform high level of development.  The 
global public sector is catching up with the private sector, 
except in the United States, where the value of the dollar 
continues to fall against the Euro and the Yen,  And none 
of our carpetbagging Shylocks will discuss the subject.

So what might come from a Ron Paul / Dennis Kunicich 
"Third Party" for 2008?  A discussion of this subject, if 
we are lucky.

Kind regards,

WesBurt

   TOP and TWP are cognoscible by sixth graders from
         Fig. 7-9.gif on Dr. W. Curtiss Priest's web site:
          <http://www.epie.org/cyber-soc/default.htm>
 TOP = 100% Capitalism --- TWP = 0 to 50% Capitalism
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://globaljusticemovement.net/pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20071127/5482e0f2/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 35196 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://globaljusticemovement.net/pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20071127/5482e0f2/attachment-0002.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 23128 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://globaljusticemovement.net/pipermail/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net/attachments/20071127/5482e0f2/attachment-0003.gif