Third Option Urges Noted Economists to Form Economic Justice 'League'

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Third Option recognizes the heroic work of economists like Robert Reich, Thomas Piketty, Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Krugman, James Heckman, Branko Milanovic, Paul Collier, David Harvey, and Peter Barnes, who are ready, willing and able to proactively fashion an economy designed to include everyone.

37.2 million Americans (11.4%) live below poverty thresholds; 50% must cover cost of living expenses between $38,266 and $85,139 (family of four) while earning annual wages below $35,000.

Piketty believes social sciences must reconnect with economics to form interdisciplinary fields capable of flattening the steep curves of wealth inequality, climate change, physical and mental health degradation, resource depletion, and the rising political division they engender. Currently, each gets paid separately on the free market; no financial incentive exists for anyone to work together toward common prosperity. As Robert Simmons of The Third Option puts it, "capitalism makes us all accomplices in the various crimes we commit against ourselves."

Reich emphasizes that "government doesn't 'intrude' on the 'free market'. It creates the market…without them there is no market." He believes we need a "Countervailing Power" to check the unholy alliance between wealth and politics.

Stiglitz and Milanovic believe reactive tax and transfer "schemes" are no longer acceptable, and instead favor proactive "endowments" that safeguard equality of opportunity. Taxation is best applied directly to the source of negative externalities (pollution, damaged health) to ensure the "buck stops" at the correct location.

Collier advocates taxing economic rent—specifically, the inflationary cost of living within densely-populated spaces—where economies of scale and agglomeration should lower costs, not raise them. Barnes warns that one-third of U.S. income is earned through "interest, dividends, capital gains and inheritances" which only trickle up; establishing a 'commons' comprised of shared resources (air, water) allows Americans to leverage "co-owned wealth" into 'shareholder dividends.'

Heckman seeks fairness for kids from "disadvantaged environments" who face financial hopelessness rife with "a range of personal and social troubles." Harvey believes capital should function solely as a medium of exchange, to facilitate the 'circulation of goods,' without the means to amass coercive control.

The Third Option urges economists to form a union of concerned social scientists—an 'economic justice league'—to lead us toward a more interdependent form of economic democracy.

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SOURCE The Third Option