Logo

With a Ph.D. in political economics, J.W. smith has written broadly and lectured widely at conferences around the world. This is the second edition of his 4th book on the causes and cures of world poverty. J.W. Smith not only takes a different view from most economists his deep research pushes dense and impossible to understand neoliberal economics off the table and replaces it with sensible economics that we can all understand. As he says, “neoliberal economics makes sense only within borders of an empire. As soon as one steps out-side those borders they make no sense at all. How could it? It is designed to lay claim to the wealth of the periphery of empire?” Smith’s 20 years of deep study of economic history builds a new school of thought. Where else do you read how wealth accumulation increases of decreases exponentially with the differential in pay between equally productive labor? That evolving from plunder by raids to plunder by trade became the signature of “civilized” nations? That Adam Smith free trade was specifically designed to entrench this system of laying claim to others wealth? Or that no nation ever developed under that philosophy? The exposure of these realities provide a new foundation upon which to understand the world. That understanding of economic history leads us to smith’s explanation of how Western “democracies” evolved from feudalism and today’s property rights laws retain the essentials of those feudal exclusive rights to nature’s bounty. The concept these monopoly rights which exclude the weak from their rightful share follows naturally. Smith provides the historic foundation to understand how Western “democracies” evolved from feudalism, that property rights still retain feudal exclusive rights to nature’s bounty, and that it is these monopoly rights excluding the weak from their rightful share as the powerful continue the privatization of the commons that impoverishes so many people. Smith looked deeply under the blanket of imposed “frameworks of orientation” protecting the power structure and its stolen wealth and concluded the debris of custom and law are the barriers preventing Western societies from evolving into peaceful and far more productive societies. Smith’s explanation of how the elimination of those monopolies through expanding individual rights and competition through a modern commons increasing economic efficiency equal to the invention of money, writing, and electricity providing all with a quality life working only two to three days per week; all while protecting the earth’s resources and ecosphere, provides a ray of light on what we must do for a peaceful and prosperous world.