Two ways to lower your taxes and raise your income
To: Folks on several mail lists. The performance of Industrial countries during the llast two decades of the 20th century suggests that, with the possible exception of Switzerland, they must have contracted either the English Disease, the Russian Disease, or some combination of the two. Both of these social pathologies are caused by the same very human propensity, Spinoza described it in 1670, of each person to grasp every opportunity to lower his/her taxes and/or raise his/her income. An opportunity to withhold public investment in other people's children (the English Disease) will today attract just as much public support as an opportunity to shift the direct personal tax burden to indirect taxes (VAT, sales, excise) on products manufactured by corporations for sale to the public (the Russian Disease). In this propensity, the poor, the middle class, and the comfortable class find their common and short range interest which moves every nation to its present condition by neglecting their long range interest. To resist this propensity, people establish governments to promulgate and enforce the Twelve Moral Commandments of an open and just society. But the people in government have the same propensity as the people in the private sector, so most governments neglect the economic rights and responsibilities enumerated in the following three year old post to The Center for American Studies at Concord, Massachusett. ~~ Begin three year old post ~~ Subj:#181-0, Two Articles of Economic Rights & Responsibilities Date: 96-02-16 21:04:45 EST To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Stuart B. Weeks, Director The Center for American Studies at Concord, Massachusetts. Dear Mr. Weeks: Here are two rarely acknowledged, and often misrepresented, articles of economic rights and responsibilities which have been handed down to us by succeeding generations of patriarchs, prophets, and poets. These articles were ancient when Moses broke the first two tables of the Law and hid the second two tables in the Ark of the Covenant to keep the Whole Law from becoming the public property of the Israelites. The first article is a statement of the Economic Right of a person or capital asset while in development, and wholly dependent on external support. The second is a statement of the Economic Responsibility of a person or capital asset while in production, and capable of being independent of all external support. Together, the two articles are the moral authority which enables and defines the optimum financial structure of a community, a corporation, or a commonwealth. Where the people have sufficient vision to teach and conform to the two articles, the people prosper. Where the two articles are violated to a sufficient degree, the wealthy, healthy, intelligent, and powerful part of the population may still prosper for a while, but the people slowly perish. We are most familiar with a poetic version of these two articles which Karl Marx borrowed from Louis Blanc, who in turn, probably got the sense of them from Thomas Paine's AGRARIAN JUSTICE or THE RIGHT'S OF MAN, part II. Marx then presented them in the inverse order and out of sequence with their consequent effects, when he wrote in his 1875 CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM: "after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-round development of the individual, and the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly -- only then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"" In this sequence Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and their successors gave the world a seventy-two year experiment with communism which failed in the U.S.S.R. and is losing ground everywhere else. Surely Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and their successors did not intend the consequent results; that the Soviet Union should fail, that the future as visualized by 19th and 20th century intellectuals should revert to a Democratic Capitalism in which the human assets are as well capitalized as the physical assets. I am pleased to propose the two articles, which express the economic keynote of an optimum community, corporation, or commonwealth, in the sequence in which they naturally occur in the life-cycle of each individual reproducible productive capital or human asset. They are numbered as they might have been listed among the twelve Moral Commandments promulgated at Mt. Sinai, of which we are taught only ten; or as they might have been listed among the first twelve "articles in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America," of which the States ratified only ten in 1789 to constitute the American Bill of Rights. Fortunately for us, the omission of these two articles di
FW: Putting on the line - could you do it?
Title: FW: Putting on the line - could you do it? Thomas: You may have noticed - a little ego here - I have not been posting lately. Why! Because I came to the realization that ideas and talk are not going to solve our multiple problems and I felt I had to withdraw and rethink this whole situation. Tom Attlee, the author of the word co-stupidity which I posted an essay about to the list several months ago is perhaps feeling the same way - as are other groups he is working with. They finally moved out of their comfort zone in a very big way to make a point of incredible value. (see essay below) The image now in my mind is Tinneamin Square (sp?) - remember that image of the Chinese man standing in front of the tank and when the tank tried to go around him, he continued to move in front - in essence saying, "listen and respond or take my life" the choice is yours, I am just going to stand here (naked) and you make the decision. I'm beginning to think that the only way we can slow and stop this insanity around us of poverty, Y2K, the effects of capitalism on the Earth and future generations is to take our clothes off and stand in front of the tank. Instead of starving us, lying to us, tricking us, decieving us - just go ahead and kill us - we stand here naked before you. Revolution is not the answer. Dramatic helplessness may be. I watch the news and see the people of Serbia, begging daily for Milosovic to just go away. They are not crying for punishment or justice, they are just saying "Please, go away, allow us to regroup and rebuild and restructure our country." That is what most of us want - for the existing structure to "just go away" and allow the rest of us to regroup, rebuild and restructure. Take the damn money you have stolen, just go away. Perhaps we have to give them the alternative - kill us or just go away, it is your choice and stand there in front of them - naked. Respectfully, Thomas Lunde When you think about what you have to do in this culture to get your priorities straight, it just boggles the mind!! But it is always heartening to hear about someone doing it. I wonder if there will be any copycat demonstrations elsewhere... -- Coheartedly, Tom Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 14:03:06 -0700 (PDT) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Wendy Tanowitz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [y2k-nuclear] Nudes, not nukes! Our Y2K World Atomic Safety Holiday campaign people were at a forum on nuclear weapons last night. It was a ho-hum affair until Helen Caldicott and Patch Adams related a story about how they had called a press conference in Washington D.C. to talk about the possibility of extinction because of y2k as it relates to nuclear weapons and power. No one came. So last night, Helen said, "What does it take to get their attention? Do I have to take my clothes off?" Then Patch Adams asked the audience how many would be willing to take their clothes off. Dozens raised their hands. One of our Y2K WASH folks called the press, we all disrobed and marched down Van Ness Avenue chanting, "disrobe for disarmament, and "Nudes, not nukes!" The SF Examiner and Channel 5 did fair coverage--no frontal nudity, however. They both get the story right about the reason we were doing this. This is the story which appeared in the San Francisco Examiner today, 10/4. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/ examiner/hotnews/stories/04/naked.dtl Activists reveal naked truth about nuclear catastrophes By Ray Delgado OF THE EXAMINER STAFF Monday, October 4, 1999 50 people march nude on Van Ness to draw attention to Y2K dangers Some activists get arrested to draw attention to their cause. Others scream and rant in hopes that people will listen. Some nuclear activists, on the other hand -- well, they get naked. About 50 people who gathered Sunday night near City Hall for a conference on the potential dangers of Y2K-induced nuclear catastrophes ended the session with a mass nude demonstration along a block of Van Ness Avenue. Desperate for press attention for their cause, they opted to get covered by uncovering. The nude march was led by Patch Adams, an activist and doctor who inspired the movie based on his lifetime of unconventional approaches to adversity. "Non-violent people like us really have so few tools to face a capitalist system," Adams told the crowd as they uncomfortably disrobed outside Herbst Theater in the War Memorial Building. "All we really have are ourselves and our ideas. Our ideas have not done the
FW: Readers' Focus
Following Anne Miller's request for help with rural regeneration, here's something fromthe co-operators that might help. xx's j * -- From: Ron Levesque <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Cooperative-bus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Readers' Focus Date: Tue, Oct 5, 1999, 7:31 pm Hello all, Our first foray into soliciting comments on the cooperative-bus for our Readers Focus section went well enough for us to attempt to make it a regular occurrence (so long as people contribute, but thats the goal of this list). With that said, The Atlantic Co-operator will be doing a special section on Rural Atlantic Canada for its November issue. Wed like to invite comments on the following Readers Focus question: How can co-operatives and credit unions effect positive change in rural communities? (you may also read the question as How can co-operatives and credit unions counter negative change in rural communities?) Can they do it on their own? What needs to happen for rural communities to survive? Give some examples from your part of the world where co-operatives and credit unions have made a difference in rural communities. At the risk of leading the answers, I found a list of "20 clues to rural community survival" published in Making Waves (a Canadian CED publication but in the context of an interview with a founder of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development - http://www.infoanalytic.com/heartland ) that Im reproducing here to help spur discussion... 20 clues to rural community survival... 1. Evidence of community pride 2. Emphasis on quality in business and community life 3. Willingness to invest in the future 4. Participatory approach to community decision making 5. Co-operative community spirit 6. Realistic appraisal of future opportunities 7. Awareness of competitive positioning 8. Knowledge of the physical environment 9. Active economic development program 10. Deliberate transition of power to a younger generation of leaders 11. Acceptance of women in leadership roles 12. Strong belief in and support for education 13. Problem-solving approach to providing health care 14. Strong multi-generational family orientation. 15. Strong presence of traditional institutions that are integral to community life 16. Attention to sound and well-maintained infrastructure 17. Careful use of fiscal resources 18. Sophisticated use of information resources 19. Willingness to seek help from the outside 20. Conviction that, in the long run, you have to do it yourself. As always, all comments and suggestions are welcome... Ron Levesque, Managing editor begin:vcard n:Levesque;Ron tel;fax:506.858.6615 tel;work:506.858.6614 x-mozilla-html:FALSE org:Atlantic Co-operative Publishers adr:;;118 Halifax Street;Moncton;NB;E1C 9S1;Canada version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:Managing Editor x-mozilla-cpt:;3 fn:Ron Levesque end:vcard
The GDP is a poor benchmark of economic growth
There is a think-tank our of the States, that has gained an exposure in a number of Canadian papers in the past couple of years. The Redefining Progress website has an interactive tool at http://www.rprogress.org/java/footpdist/footpdist.html you may find of interest if your browers allows JavaScripts. Bernie Slepkov DreamTEAMS International: HEALING FRAGMENTED COMMUNITIES http://www.mergetel.com/dreamteams begin: vcard fn: Bernie Slepkov n: Slepkov;Bernie org:DreamTEAMS International adr:64B North Street;;;St. Catharines;ON;L2R 2S6;Canada email;internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] title: Founder tel;work: (905) 684-7479 tel;fax:(905) 684-0681 tel;home: (905) 685-6977 note: http://www.mergetel.com/dreamteams x-mozilla-cpt: ;0 x-mozilla-html: TRUE version:2.1 end:vcard
Re: The GDP is a poor benchmark of economic growth
> http://www.rprogress.org/java/footpdist/footpdist.html Correct URL is http://www.rprogress.org/java/Footpdist/Footpdist.html (case sensitive!) Chris
