OK, SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO NEXT?

As I stated in my Economic Essay #1 which was published in the September/October 2002 issue of SOCIAL JUSTICE REVIEW, my personal feelings are that the best environment to promote change in personal and individual attitudes toward basic economic and social justice is in small companies. Most people are too tied up in their personal lives and individual challenges to consider making changes in overall society that they feel rather powerless to make, even if they knew what needs to be done. However, if the basic principles of a better way of “doing things” were made part of their individual company’s regular way of doing business, they would soon “get it” and support efforts to implement such environments elsewhere and thus create a ground swell for proper changes that our elected leaders could no longer ignore.

However, the above statement does not in any way lessen my sincere admiration for the tireless efforts to improve things in this world by Norman G. Kurland, President of The Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) and his affiliated associates. As a long time protégé and associate of Louis Kelso, Mr. Kurland has been waging a tenacious campaign to promote the basic concepts espoused by Kelso and Mortimer Adler in their wonderful, but misnamed, book, THE CAPITALIST MANIFESTO, as well as their later book, THE NEW CAPITALISTS: A PROPOSAL TO FREE ECONOMIC GROWTH FROM THE SLAVERY OF SAVINGS. Follow-on writers, such as Robert Ashford and Rodney Shakespeare who wrote the book BINARY ECONOMICS: THE NEW PARADIGM have helped to spread the good word. Indeed, one of Mr. Kurland’s own documented proposals, first published in 1978; entitled THE ABRAHAM FEDERATION was based upon Kelsonian principles and is a profound document. While originally envisioned as a possible solution to the Israeli/Palestinian impasse, it has tremendous potential for helping to achieve a free and economically viable nation in Iraq if it were applied to the now-liberated Iraqi oil industry so that all its citizens could become its owners. (You can read the proposal on the CESJ web site at www.cesj.org. The organization is based in the Washington, D.C. area).

In spite of all of the above, I feel that there needs to be an expanded and well organized “bottom-up” or “grass-roots” effort to promote genuinely economic and socially just employee-owned companies. While Mr. Kurland’s primary activities have been a dedicated promotional effort on both the national and international level, CESJ has nevertheless also recognized and called attention to quality-governed companies that use what CESJ judged to be “Justice-Based Management” in pursuit of a mission to transition from a company with a “wage slave” environment to one of “genuine employee-owners.”

Such recognized companies have, from time to time, sort of sporadically sprung up or mutated in various localities around the country in spite of efforts to accelerate the development of such companies by various groups and organizations.

Yet, in my humble opinion, THIS PROCESS IS NOT MOVING FAST ENOUGH!!

Thus, I’ve asked myself the following question: Couldn’t there be a national network of company-building business incubators that could promote whole new groups of quality businesses through the systematic application of;

1. Dedicated start-up capital,

2 Mentor-based goal-attainment-prior-to-further-funding techniques and,

3: Justice-based management and leadership training along with operational guidance?

I was originally involved in a business incubator over 20 years ago. Like many start-up businesses, it wasn’t successful, for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, my systems engineering training and experience just hasn’t allowed me to stop thinking about the fact that if it was and still is such a good idea, how come my underdeveloped original ideas and feelings haven’t been put into effect by some other organization(s)?

Well, over the ensuing years a functional model has come together as I’ve sought out advice from experienced and successful people in various fields of capital formation and small business development. In addition, a recent semi-sabbatical has allowed me to do a great deal of reading over a wide variety of subjects and authors that spanned the spectrum of human activities. Thus, as I’ve read and pondered the deep questions of what we humans have been doing in the past, what we are doing at present and what we ought to be doing in the future for the betterment of all mankind, as well as for the earth upon which we live, I THINK I’VE FIGURED IT OUT!!!

In short, what’s involved is that a national network of individually and locally-owned business incubators needs to be created. An associated, but independent, network of early-stage venture-funders needs to work with a group of mature mentors at each business incubator to ensure that incremental goal attainment by each investee company precedes the next increment of funding. Training and mentoring at each center would include justice-based training in management (the proper actions to take with things) and leadership (the proper manner in which we should deal with people).

Further, the world is changing rapidly (see ONE WORLD, READY OR NOT by William Greider) and the allure of Low-Cost Countries (LCC’s) must be addressed. In order to facilitate cooperation with LCC located companies, rather than endure destructive competition, each business incubator could develop relationships with one or more business incubators in various locations in LCC’s around the world. So, instead of “sister cities” with which we are all familiar, there would be “sister business incubators.” They are needed because there are over 7,000 Non-Governmental Organizations that are making micro-loans to citizens around the world. Some of the assisted entrepreneurs eventually progress from their little cottage-based businesses to real enterprises and need advanced help that regional business incubators could provide. Experience has shown that while basic educational efforts to teach people various skills are necessary for their individual lifestyle improvement, those efforts alone are usually not sufficient for genuine economic success over time.

So, what I’m proposing is to bring in a new corps of seasoned reinforcements to help out in the battle to bring economic and social justice to the world. Our efforts under the overall economic and social justice movement umbrella will be concentrated in creating an ever-expanding number of model companies that can show the proper way to create genuine peace and prosperity for all peoples.

WHEN COULD THIS HAPPEN???

THE SOONER THE BETTER!!!