Global Justice Movement
The Five JUSTICES

Monetary Justice

Social Justice

Economic Justice

Environmental Justice

Peace Justice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Abundance Is Possible

The rights of the individual include the rights of liberty, secure incomes, access to productive property through an expansion of capital ownership and trusteeship, access to the commons, free markets, and the secret ballot, while the responsibilities of the individual include a continual concern for the rights and interests of others.

Summary of Economic Justice

• State-issued interest-free (except for small administration cost) repayable money for public capital investment (which can be constructed or managed by the private sector) thereby halving the present cost.

• State-issued interest-free (except for administration and possible loan insurance cost) repayable money for private new productive investment if wide ownership is thereby furthered, such ownership to provide a first secure income. Tax and other incentives for wide capital ownership.

• State-issued interest-free (except for administration and possible loan insurance cost) repayable money for small and start-up businesses.

• Debt-free issuance to maintain a stable level of prices thereby founding a second secure income (in addition to any income coming from labor).

• Debt cancellation for poor nations implementing a Global Justice fresh start.

• Re-thinking on taxes.

• Concentrate on real productive investment and deter lending for inflated asset prices.

see
"Seven Steps to Justice"
by Rodney Shakespeare & Peter Challen

Published by
NEW EUROPEAN PUBLICATIONS LIMITED 2002
188 pages 215mm x 140mm Paperback
ISBN 1 – 8724 – 1027 – 8 Price £10-95

This book is available at www.amazon.co.uk
or through UK bookshops

or by mail order –
£11 including postage to:
Peter Challen,
21, Bousfield Road, London, SE14 5TP - Tel: 020 7207 0509

N.B. Over time, in the Global Justice economy, interest-free money will come to replace interest-bearing money and not be in addition to it. Since it is replacing, it cannot be inflationary.


It is a condemnation of present unfree, unfair and inefficient finance capitalism throughout the world that there is an undoubted and huge pent-up consumer demand (in the form, for example, of poor people wanting basic necessities). At the same time, there is also an undoubted physical capacity to provide those necessities. Yet the poverty remains.

The main reason is that the poor, no matter how arduously they work, are insufficiently productive and will remain insufficiently productive while they are confined to the often meagre, often unobtainable, and always uncertain, benefits of labor. Without access to the other factor that produces wealth – capital – the poor will be with us forever.

A slightly different way of looking at the situation is the analysis of Social Credit. This observes that, as things are at present structured, there is always insufficient demand (in the form of unsatisfied consumer needs) to buy what has been produced, let alone what is capable of being produced. The Social Credit solution is to increase demand by the issuance of debt-free money.

The GJM Economic Justice proposals, however, attack the problem of poverty by both ensuring that the poor have access to productive capacity (which creates a counter-inflationary situation) and by issuing debt-free money for a second secure income. The consequence is a just society with a stable level of prices and a balanced growth.

Differential Interest Rates

In referring to interest-free money, it should be understood that associated with the issuance would be a small cost for administration expenses and, in certain circumstances (private sector wide ownership), a possible cost for loan insurance. That said, in the Justice economy, there would be two broad types of interest rate:–

i) interest-free (as qualified by the paragraph above) for Justice purposes

ii) interest-bearing for those parts of the economy not covered by the Justice proposals.

Financial and Physical Feasibility

Conventional economics asserts that financial savings are required before there can be capital investment. That is untrue. Because nowadays generally all money is fiat money – created out of nothing at the press of a computer button – there is not, and cannot be, a shortage of money for capital investment.

Nor, generally, are physical savings required before there can be production. There may be a shortage of a material (in which case, its price may rise or there may have to be a substitute material) and there can be a temporary shortage of the relevant labour.

Yet, as everybody should now realise, the problem is rarely, if ever, a problem of inadequate supply through lack of capital, either financial or physical. Rather it is a problem of lack of demand in an economy. That lack prevents the new investment which so often embodies the latest, and most efficient, technology.

The matter can be summarised by saying that whatever is physically possible and morally right, and for which a genuine demand exists, is financially possible. Thus the ultimate purpose of economics – to free each person to engage creatively in the unlimited work beyond economics, that of the mind and spirit – becomes increasingly possible.

Moral Principles

There is an aspect to the GJM proposals which confounds conventional economics. It is usually asserted (or, if not asserted, implied) that justice and economic inefficiency are incompatible.

But that is not true. In Economic Justice, which is sensitive to Environmental Justice and the other Justices, the justice creates the efficiency and the efficiency creates the justice. You can read more about this in Binary Economics – the new paradigm, obtainable from Amazon.com

Economic Justice

Economic Justice has three principles:–

• Participation
This is the right for all individuals to participate in the economic process in order to make a living. It certainly includes the right to own productive capital and receive the full earnings of that capital. In short it is the right to have access to private property in productive assets as well as the opportunity to engage in labour. A right to labour alone is not enough.

A point to note is that when people have access to capital they are not necessarily dependent on labour. Indeed, those whose labour is no longer required can be given another way of earning. The importance of having another way is seen in the history of the Canadian cod fishing industry (a history which is only too likely to be repeated in the North Sea). The seas off Newfoundland were being over-fished. But because, in order to limit the cod catch, fishermen would have to be deprived of their livelihood, inadequate action was taken. It is now, alas, possible that Canadian cod will never be seen again.

• Distribution
The principle of distribution says that individuals should receive from an economic system what they have productively put into it (via their labour or capital ownership). It involves the sanctity of property and contracts in a truly free and open marketplace. Through the distributional features of private property within a free and open marketplace, distributive justice becomes automatically linked to participative justice, and incomes become linked to productive contributions. The principle of distributive justice is inextricably involved with the principle of participation and breaks down when all persons are not given equal opportunity to acquire and enjoy the fruits of income-producing property.

• Harmony
The principle of harmony detects failure in implementing the principles of participation and distribution, and makes the corrections needed to restore a just and balanced economic order for all. Unjust barriers to participation violate the principle, as do monopolies and the use of property to harm or exploit others. The principle opposes greed because greed leads to the exclusion and exploitation of others.

The principle is also violated by environmental depredation since such depredation ultimately harms all. See Seven Steps to Justice, Rodney Shakespeare & Peter Challen, obtainable from Amazon.co.uk

Balanced Growth

So exactly how is it that the justice creates the efficiency and the efficiency creates the justice? The answer is simple – by focussing on and spreading productive capacity (in the forms of individually owned capital estates), consuming capacity is also spread. Thus supply and demand are brought into proper balance. And if demand is still inadequate there is still the source of additional demand resulting from the issuance of debt-free money to give people a second secure income. One way or another, Global Justice ensures that those with unsatisfied consumer needs are able to satisfy them.

You can read more about this in Binary Economics – the new paradigm.

The importance of all individuals – retired, babies, carers, in work, out of work, student – owning productive capital cannot be overstressed. Since jobs are insecure, often poorly paid, not always available and, in any case, not all people can labor, the way forward for the bulk of the population can only be through capital ownership. The object of that ownership is to ensure a basic income for all and Norm Kurland and Shann Turnbull have drawn up a major Statement of Shared Vision. Read the Statement of Vision now being signed by thousands!

Complementary and Community Currencies

Complementary and community currencies such as LETS, Time Dollars and Ithaca Hours, are excellent additions to the armoury of monetary reform. Perhaps even more importantly, they are run by courageous people with the right get-up-and-go spirit who can be expected to be among those supporting the GJM. See Complementary, Community and Ecological currencies.

The currencies, however, while undoubtedly complementary with a big role to play in the future, are not enough by themselves. Rather like Grameen, something bigger is needed.

Forms of Capital Ownership and Management

Many and varied are the possible forms of capital ownership and for some indication of what is possible, including techniques by which wide ownership can be obtained, two good sources are the following recommended authoritative and lively books by Jeff Gates: -
• Democracy At Risk
• The Ownership Solution

Jeff believes that everybody should own productive capital and his books give a range of possible ways of achieving that including tax incentives. He points out that present ‘capitalism’ creates very few capitalists; rather, it is designed to finance more capital for existing capitalists.

There are also many ways by which corporations can be managed. One example is the over 150 Mondragon businesses of Spain which generally have a common ownership but, on leaving the company, a worker is able to cash in a capital stake. Mondragon also has inclusive managerial structures which give workers an appropriate say in the running of their corporations via boards or control centers. Co-ordinating all the companies is the Corporacion Cooperativa and the whole of Mondragon represents an outstanding example of a richly democratic form of network governance.

The ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) of binary economics have several potential variations and are associated with techniques giving the workers a proper say. See Value-based Management at the website of the Washington, D.C Center for Economic and Social Justice

A writer who has new ideas on both forms of ownership and of management is Shann Turnbull. Shann is a fighter for justice and author of Democratising the Wealth of Nations and other works proposing the use of interest-free money for wide capital ownership, as well as the reform of company structures including stakeholder councils.

Help and information on forms of capital ownership and management is available from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent University, Ohio, U.S. Employee Ownership Center at Kent University, Ohio, U.S. Aided by the Ford Foundation, the OEOC organizes internet discussion on various aspects of capital ownership.

Also, highly recommended:
Capital Homesteading for Every Citizen

a Just Free Market Solution for Saving Social Security
by Norman Kurland, Dawn Brohawn, Michael Greaney

"This splendid book explains how to build a nation in which EVERYBODY, yes, everybody can become an owner of productive capital. It gives an original and massively positive solution to the need to provide proper Social Security for everybody."

published by
Center for
Economic and Social Justice, USA
www.cesj.org
SEE FLYER

 

Taxes

A society has to pay for its environment policies; its defence, its law courts; police, roads, and much else. It is likely, therefore, that there will always be some taxes. Moreover, no one tax by itself can be completely fair to all.

That said, the GJM, mindful of the need for taxes to be as simple, cheap to collect and fair as possible, wishes to see taxes in place which do not catch the poor more that the rich (as is too often the case at present). The GJM does not claim that the following taxes are the best but rather wishes that they be fairly considered and good faith experiment made.

Money Transfer/ Transactions Tax

A tiny percentage tax every time money moves into or out of a bank (or similar) account. Such a tax could replace a large range of other taxes and would not hit heavily on the poor.

Land Value Tax

A Land Value Tax (or Site Value Tax) is a tax on the value of land as opposed to a tax on the improvements (such as buildings) on the land. Owners of land benefit unfairly when, as a result of community activity, their land rises in value. A recent example is the building of the London Jubilee underground train system which has resulted in a great rise in local land values. Those rising values amount to a free gift to the land owners. Global Justice proposes that there should be a tax on the increased values because they are not the result of the land owners’ efforts.

The LVT is simple and costs little to administer. It would also encourage underdeveloped land to be brought into use. In varying degrees, land value tax operates, among others, in Jamaica, Chile, Kenya, Pennsylvania in the United States, some areas of South Africa, and Tanzania.

See article by Dave Wetzel on the CCMJ website, which was published in the New Stateman in September 2004.

Other Possible Taxes

GJM members – and if you believe in the principles of the GJM, you are a member of the GJM – are invited to come forward with ideas for other taxes to replace existing taxes. It should be remembered, however, that, while some taxes are always likely to be necessary, a major purpose of the GJM is to ensure that all individuals are properly productive with their own income so that taxation for the purposes of income redistribution becomes unnecessary.

New Thinking

The GJM welcomes new thinking in all areas. A good recent example is the work of Chris Cook who observed that the UK Limited Liability Partnerships Act (2000) had implications which may, or may not, have been intended. As a result of the Act, it is now possible to form a corporate body (i.e., a legal entity which has an existence independent of its individual Members) which is a Partnership but also, at the same time, has a collective limited liability.

There are two important new and unintended qualities of such "new" LLPs:–

Firstly, they have an "open", essentially collaborative and co-operative nature – any stakeholder in an enterprise (e.g., staff, management, investors, suppliers, service providers, customers) can subscribe to a suitably drafted LLP Agreement and so be partners rather than be adversaries whose contractual relationships are those of employer/employee; investor/company; or company/supplier. Hence Chris calls the LLP an "open" Corporate Partnership.

Secondly, the existence of a corporate body which is also a partnership changes the nature of Capital itself. Ownership of Partnerships consists of proportional shares/partnership interests rather than "fixed" shares of a par or nominal value e.g., £1.00. If such proportional and "true" Equity is held for a defined period of time – a phenomenon known as "Temporary Equity" – then it enables "working" capital to be raised outside the existing debt/interest paradigm where banks/financiers have no interest in the success or failure of the business other than receiving back their investment plus fixed interest.

Chris believes that this combination of a collaborative/co-operative "open" nature, and new simple, flexible and truly equitable hybrid "temporary equity" creates an optimal form of enterprise structure which will literally reinvent current infrastructure.

So Economic Justice demands

• State-issued interest-free (except for small administration cost) repayable money for public capital investment (which can be constructed or managed by the private sector) thereby halving the present cost.

• State-issued interest-free (except for administration and possible loan insurance cost) repayable money for new private productive investment if wide ownership is thereby furthered, such ownership to provide a first secure income. Tax and other incentives for wide capital ownership.

• State-issued interest-free (except for administration and possible loan insurance cost) repayable money for small and start-up businesses.

• Debt-free issuance to maintain a stable level of prices thereby founding a second secure income (in addition to any income coming from labor).

• Debt cancellation for poor nations implementing a Global Justice fresh start.

• Re-thinking on taxes.

• Concentrate on real productive investment and deter lending for inflated asset prices.

N.B. Over time, in the Global Justice economy, interest-free money will come to replace interest-bearing money and not be in addition to it. Since it is replacing, it cannot be inflationary.

1. Everybody must own productive capital

Over time, on market principles, everybody in society must come to have an income from the independent ownership of productive capital. The capital, furthermore, must pay out its full earnings (net of reserves for research, depreciation and development). Only then can there be a balanced growth as well as social and economic justice.

2. Death taxes to spread capital ownership

What happens to the capital estate of a very rich deceased person? Is any tax payable under Global Justice?

The answer is that no tax is payable on death if the estate devolves in such a way as to spread capital ownership. Thus, if an estate worth millions of dollars is bequeathed to only one person, a very large amount of tax would be payable. But if the estate is bequeathed to a number of people, none of whom end up with too large a capital estate, then no tax would be payable. Bear in mind that the essential point is to spread capital ownership and the death tax rule easily makes sense.

3. Everybody must have two secure incomes

The first secure income, of course, comes from the ownership of productive capital (perhaps paying out eight times more than capital does at present).

But there is a second secure income in Global Justice. Since interest-free repayable money for public, private (wide ownership) and small business capital investment is counter-inflationary there will be increased wealth but lowered prices. In order, therefore, to maintain a stable level of prices, the issuance of debt-free money will become necessary. Such money has no interest attached and is not repayable.

Thus a second secure income becomes possible (in addition to any income a person gets from labor, or from anything else such as a pension).

Remember – the world has the technology and productive resources to eliminate misery, poverty and injustice and save the planet.

So let’s demand the Five Justices!

Monetary Justice

Social Justice
Economic Justice
Environmental Justice
Peace Justice

Join the Global Justice Movement!

See those who have joined the GJM! Compare Global Justice with present Capitalism and Socialism!

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Global Justice – the true, fair, democratic and efficient solution to poverty. Global Justice means Inclusive Justice!