This research work is based around a slight but significant historic correction to Keynes “General Theory,” which dramatically alters the face of modern economics — as presented, via Concordian Economics, in theory, policy, and practice: toward our calling of “applied American Studies.”
Concordian Economics
~ An Economics of Common Sense ~
“Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world, unless he not only pays his debts, but also adds something to the common wealth.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Wealth
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As a lead-in to the cornerstones, we commend to you the glimpse
“Our Fortunes” on p. 21 in the attached.
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Four Cornerstones
1) Every human being, each and every one of us, is different, unique — not only outwardly, with respect to our countenance or fingerprints, but inwardly. That is, each of us has our own unique gifts, talents, abilities, our own “genius.” Such a “calling” is our inalienable birthright. It is what has brought us into the world, why we are alive, what we live for: the unfolding of our full potential.
If this first cornerstone is clear, it leads to the second.
2) As such, We the People have not only the right — which, if left at that, i.e. “my right,” we can choose to disclaim — but, more to the point, we have the responsibility to give expression to our unique “calling,” our gifts, talents, abilities, our “genius” in service to the greater community: our common wealth. We have the growing responsibility to give our best to those around us, All Our Relations — even if our beginnings are as “rude” as the log cabins from which Abraham Lincoln and Booker T. Washington took their first steps. For, if we withhold our unique piece of the puzzle (be it within our family or community, small or larger), then that piece is missing. The puzzle is incomplete. This responsibility, we suggest, gives our rights their ultimate right and meaning.
If clear, this second cornerstone leads to the third. That is, having established the broader human framework, human measure, human element, the broader human context for what, as noted, has come to be referred to as the increasingly in-human, “dismal science” of economics, we have a foundation for addressing the practice of economics itself — in, as noted, the spirit of common sense.
3) In order to assume responsibility, give our best — in a modern economy that has moved beyond subsistence and barter — in order, that is, to be true to our individual “calling,” We the People require access, reasonable access to money, credit, our common wealth. That said, such access can only occur when the creation, issuance, and circulation of money, our “life-blood,” is overseen (as opposed to managed) by our public servants, as opposed to private self-interests.
This public control of our common wealth is clearly stipulated in our United States Constitution. Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 5 states: “Congress shall have the power to coin money; regulate the value thereof.” Congress as the representatives of the People, We.
Our Founding Fathers enshrined this article in our Constitution for a reason. That is, without reasonable access to our national credit, We the People end up merely “going through the motions”, “punching the time clock”, “getting a job” — “good” or otherwise. Our “pursuit of happiness” remains unending. Our lives and labors are relegated to working to fulfill our “boss’” dream, while all too often our dream becomes a nightmare.
If both this third and the foregoing two cornerstones make sense, common sense, what more needs to be said about our financial affairs, our fortunes, humanity’s fate and future?
In human terms, can it be any more simple and straightforward? If money is, as expressed, our commonwealth, the “life-blood” of our nation, it must flow, unimpeded, throughout the entire body-social, enriching every cell/individual in the organism/society — as opposed to being pooled in privileged and selective organs/accounts where it becomes, in effect, a blood-clot that undermines the health of society, the system.
And yet a question, cornerstone, remains.
4) What keeps us, We the People, from recognizing this truth and, thereby, assuming responsibility, as noted, for our “life-blood,” common wealth, national credit — alongside our national debt for which we’re obliged to pay our taxes?
Is the question clear?
Why don’t We the People stand up on behalf of our “genius,” follow our calling, give more fully of our gifts, talents, abilities in service to our communities, nation, and world? This perennial question we look forward to taking up.
“The [true] cost of something is the amount of life that you exchange for it.”
– Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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For more information, contact: Carmine Gorga at info@concord-ium.us