Class Action: "We Can Be Better Than We Are."

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

	On Mon, 28 Jul 1997, Harry Veeder wrote: ...
	
	"I suppose it would be like a class action suit
	 against the government." ...

	     ---------------- end ---------------


	I suppose we all suppose we can be/do better than
	we are.  We can be individually and collectively.
	We can be thru personal effort, the Congress and
	the Courts.

	Yet it doesn't happen.  PKT and the Santa Fe group
	want to know why and, to an extent, they do know
	why.  And they do have "know how".

	But we don't "know how" to move from here to
	there.

	Gelles asks for a legal right to work -- one
	that would support an individual cause of action
	against the government -- if gov't failed to lend
	money required to be lent by law. (A class action
	would also lie.)  And were there such a right,
	plaintifs would win.  There would be no
	unemployment and no related poverty --

	          If, and only if, a new poverty were
	     not induced by an inflation that resulted
	     from the legal right to credit by anyone
	     looking for work.

	Gelles' idea is about as far out as Veeder's.

	Galbraith, in the liberal agenda I have referred
	to often recently, uses the word "solidarity",
	calling on the rich and powerful to make common
	cause with all citizens to create a civilization
	of which all can be proud. Of course, "solidarity"
	calls first on the lower middle class and poor to
	exhibit some, and via the trade union movement,
	help the power structure to see the light.

	And we all know how important "solidarity" is
	to political action aimed at rational political
	economy -- the PKT mission.  If we have little
	of it here and now, what will a philanthropist
	pay a lawyer to do?  If there is nothing agreed
	upon, even rich men like Perot and Forbes get
	nowhere.  More than money, common economic sense
	is wanting.  Class action?  Sure.  When we're
	ready.

                   John Gelles
                   http://myturn.org
                   http://rain.org/~jjgelles/

                     Common Economic Sense

        1. Saving, not unemployment, to fight inflation.
        2. Inflation protection  for savers and lenders.
        3. Keynesian  financing  of  public  priorities.
        4. Strong unions, low taxes/interest for growth.
        5. Microloans for  the right to self-employment.
        6. Automation for a high minimum std. of living.