When I worked in President Johnson's War on Poverty (and authored the
guidelines on "maximum feasible participation of the poor" which
those
at the top never promoted), I remember someone responding to Chris'
challenge, "Were trying to end poverty, not copy it." In fact, most
of
those in the battle to end poverty never tried to live in poverty and
certainly failed to end it. But the point makes sense, notwithstanding
Mother Theresa's extremely laudable example or that of Fr. Bill
Christensen in Bangladesh.

Voluntary poverty is noble, but I think it's wrong to try to make people
feel guilty if they choose not to want to live in poverty. I certainly
don't feel an ounce of guilt for living the modest good life my wife and
I live. However, I think everyone should be encouraged to use their
energies to organize with others to build the critical mass of people
power needed to transform the systems of monopoly capitalisn, socialism
and the mixed-up Keynesian Welfare State system, into Just Third Way
systems (what Pope John Paul II called "Personalism") based on binary

economics. To live in poverty to promote revolutionary ideas, in my
opinion, is a distraction from the goal of changing the system from the
bottom-up. Those wishing to live in poverty are, however, invited to
join us at the Fed next April 18th, where the Just Third Way movement
will deliver to the "High Priests" who control this global
"Temple of
Money" the message: "Deliver Money Power to Every Citizen . . . from
the
bottom-up."

I get tired of hearing people attacking people, whether the targets are
the rich or the poor. Why perpetuate class warfare? Isn't it more
effective to target the system and "Structures of Sin" that force
most
of humanity to live lives of quiet desperation, some more desperate than
others? Yes, it's useful to tell stories of those who suffer the most,
but mainly for the purpose of getting those better off to work together
with stronger commitment to focus on working with others to change the
system causing the suffering. And Capital Homesteading offer a set of
key transformations to the current systems of the world that could end
world poverty in one or two generations. Why be distracted from this
worthy goal?

Own or Be Owned,