Michiel Bijkerk wrote:
THE ENGINE OF SOLIDARISM
 
In capitalist countries, the power to create money (out of nothing) is in
 the hands of private banks, owned by a tiny fraction of the population. This
 is a recipe for the concentration of economic power in the hands of a small
 economic elite. This elite uses its means to buy political control. Barack

 Obama, too, was bought this way. We have high hopes of him and are elated he
 was elected. His election in itself was an important step forward. But we
know he has little freedom of movement. Therefore, the change he has
 promised will be marginal, although this could still be significant.
Unfortunately, Obama is not moving in the direction of economic democracy,
 nor suggesting the introduction of any solidarist principles. We do believe,
 however, he will clear the way for this. Another president, maybe in 1212,
 will flick the solidarist switch. But Cuba could still be the first to
 enlighten the world.

 In Cuba the power of money creation is in the hands of the State, i.e. the
Cuban Central Bank. But its potential is not realized, nor fully utilized.
 It can't be, because the Cuban State does not utilize the full potential of
 the people. The whole of Cuba is an absolute monopoly, one large plantation
 where the workers have to buy their necessities in the plantation's own
 shops. The State is basically the only owner and only entrepreneur, not in
 any way spurred on by competition, nor encouraged by the desire to  make
 profit. This is a recipe for slow economic degeneration, which is visible
 everywhere. Buildings are crumbling, roads are potholed, not to mention the
 moral degeneration of the people. The degeneration progresses slowly. You
 can hold out for quite a while, but like Cuba's 'carcasos' (vintage cars),
there comes a day the economy is beyond repair.
 
The only cure for the crime of poverty is work
 
It is production that counts in any economy. You have to produce to consume.
 In fact, the main reason why people produce (work) is to consume. This is
 even true for the church pastor; if he doesn't work, he will not consume.
 So, in order to raise the economic level of the Cuban people (which they all
 want), Cuba has to produce more. This is not rocket science. To increase
 production and thereby the economic level of the people, production must
 take place as effectively and efficiently as possible, at the lowest
 possible prices to ensure products will be affordable for the people. No
 amount of fiery speeches by Raul or Fidel Castro will make this happen.
 
It will happen, however,
 a) if the Cuban people (not the State, nor a tiny elite, but every
 individual citizen) owns a larger or smaller part of Cuba's 'means of
production', i.e. owns stocks and shares in the companies that produce the
goods and services society needs (companies such as farms, factories, shops,
hotels etc.) and
 b) if these privately owned ESOP-companies have to compete with each other
 and are free to make a profit (to be distributed to the workers working
 there). We explained earlier what 'ESOP' means (Employee Stock Ownership
 Plan) and what ESOP-companies are.

 The Cuban Central Bank can easily finance the transfer of all State-held
 businesses to a large number of ESOP-companies, to be held by the workers
 and farmers who work there. It can do so by extending the required credit to
these companies, thus enabling them to pay an equitable purchase price to
 the Cuban State. However, in accordance with the ESOP-tradition, the workers
 and farmers would not have to use their private savings to pay for their
shares; these can be paid for with the dividends their shareholding entitles
 them to. In other words, the purchase price will be generated by these
 ESOP-companies themselves. This, too, is not rocket science. The next
 article will explain the rules to be adhered to in order to create money
 safely.
 
- Michiel Bijkerk

 
Have you seen our website?

 

 www.arcocarib.com
 

Here's another great report from Michiel Bijkerk from Cuba.  I agree with the main arguments, but would have suggested that anything now owned by the Cuban State should be distributed free to each citizen.  Anything owned by the State can and should be owned by its citizens.  The State did not create any productive assets.  The people did.  Therefore, why should the people have to pay for what they and their tools have created?

What the State can do, however, is to enable the people to own the central bank of Cuba.  Then the people could create new money to expand the economy in ways that all citizens could become owners of the new technologies, rentable space, land and natural resources to be channeled for increasing marketable goods and services, new physical structures, new enterprises, etc,, all with asset-backet productive credit.  That would turn every man, woman and child into a capital owner without forcing them to take food off the table or otherwise tighten their belts or using what little savings they might have accumulated.
But even if the Cuban people don't adopt all Just Third Way and Binary Economics innovations, if the Pied Piper Michiel produces a grassroots following in Cuba, Cuba might actually lead the world in converting from socialism and wage slavery to freedom through the Just Third Way, or what Michiel calls Solidarism and the late Pope John Paul II called "Personalism."

Own or Be Owned,
Norm