Ronald Reagan's Speech on Project Economic Justice

The Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice
In 1985, Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) members initiated and mobilized bipartisan support for Congressional legislation which established the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice under President Ronald Reagan. Project Economic Justice, which was first conceived in a strategy paper authored by CESJ, offered a revolutionary economic alternative to military solutions to regional conflicts in Central America and the Caribbean. Enacted as part of the International Security and Development Cooperation Act of 1985, this legislation created the first presidential task force to be totally funded with private donations and supported by both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. Former Ambassador to the Organization of American States and the European Community, The Hon. J. William Middendorf II, served as Chairman. CESJ's president, Norman G. Kurland, served as deputy chairman.
The task force's 1986 report, High Road to Economic Justice, was America's first official endorsement of "expanded capital ownership" as a means for achieving economic democracy as the foundation for sustaining a stable political order. Some of the task force's recommendations were adopted into U.S. foreign policy and were included as one of the World Bank's "market based" options for debt-equity conversions through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
In 1987, CESJ representatives delivered the Presidential Task Force report directly to President Ronald Reagan at a White House ceremony and Pope John Paul II in a private audience at the Vatican.
In 1988, CESJ members and friends funded the Polish translation of Every Worker an Owner. This CESJ compendium on the concepts, techniques, and policies of expanded share ownership served as the orientation book for the Presidential Task Force. Forty thousand copies of the Polish translation were distributed throughout Solidarity channels in Poland prior to the dismantling of the Soviet Union.
CESJ's Every Worker an Owner was sent under cover letter in May 1988 by USAID Administrator Alan Woods to every USAID mission around the world.

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[Chesterbarnes1]

A dear old man elected into the White House heaven help us!

[justthirdway]

@Chesterbarnes1 Your comment evades the issue. Does it matter who it is or his or her age who supports the de-monopolization of capital ownership and spreading ownership to every citizen as a fundamental human right? Are you against economic justice? What's your alternative?

[checkerflagbubba]

It's interesting to read the comments made by Reagan's fans and detractors alike. Both sets of people generally have one thing in common:both have missed out the essence of his thinking. Reagan was no Thatcherite. He was very much what folks might call a civic republican or even a progressive conservative. He wanted to keep promises that 'socialists can't keep.' His consistent advocacy for universal capital ownership is in keeping with his overall vision for America...and the world.

[justthirdway]

@checkerflagbubba  I agree.

[ourearthhome]

Freedom must be balanced with justice or neither seems to work. The example of the worker owners of the Perla Plantation is instructive. People will defend what they have a stake in. This country was built on the opportunity to own land as Reagan states but now a very large percentage of people own no land, many own but owe huge mortgages effectively nullifying land ownership while the wealthy own an incredibly disproportionate amount of the truly valuable land and natural resources. Stake?

[jbryant13]

finefilth - you couldn't be more wrong.

Google " Postal Workers Paid to do nothing "

[1995e34]

@hyperseauton

...i guess if you leave out obama, jfk, fdr, carter, lincoln, and washington

[BBCater]

@ourearthhome Very good points. And this is what I've been saying for decades. I've called it "unbridled capitalism". Capitalism has usurped "free enterprise" in this country, and masquerades as its synonym. It is NOT. Free enterprise gives a man the ability to borrow against his property on its defined value. Capitalism lets him borrow against his history of payments on the first debt. This is the mess we are in - and it works in BOTH directions - capitalism and socialism. We spend our future.

[hyperseauton]

Reagan was the greatest human being ever to be elected President of the United States of America!

Long live Ronald Reagan and long live the United States!

[negativefuckhead]

He was such a fucking ASSHOLE! - FUCK! lol

[Chesterbarnes1]

@justthirdway

My friend my words were kind and gentle towards our former late President. You attempt to add something to my comments that are NOT there. I said nothing about monopolization, captial ownership, spreading it, or human rights, or economic justice. You are looking for a partisan fight and I'm not interested.  My words still stand. "A dear old man elected into the White House... heaven help us.."

[paulagloria]

@checkerflagbubba Do you think that either the US or the Soviets at the time of the joke he told had anything other than a labor theory of value themselves. Why is central America 3:30 and not the entire US's economic system being considered? Does anyone know what is on Regan's nose?