For all of the efforts of governments, we see too little evidence that the modern nation-state assists the transformation of society economically and builds a culture of peace. There are good reasons for this ineffectiveness. Primary among them is a reluctance to admit the role of moral principle and sound theory in structuring approaches to social problems. Our first speaker, Dr. Norman G. Kurland, president of the Center for Economic and Social Justice, went to the heart of the problem.
Moral absolutes have definite applications in the establishment of genuine democracy.
Dr. Kurland will discuss the principles themselves, and their general application to the problem of economic democratization. If we truly wish to empower people politically and socially, then real democracy must include economic democracy. Dr. Kurland discussed how and why the right to be politically free must necessarily include the right be to economically free, and why every citizen of every country has a natural right of access to the means of acquiring and possessing property. The key means, he pointed out, is the use of the institutions of money and credit in our society. By this, we do not mean merely property in consumer goods, a right with which even Marx agreed, but property in productive assets.