WHAT IS AN ESOP AND HOW DOES IT HELP ADVANCE THE KELSO-ADLER PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE?
Congress has acted five times since late December 1973 to promote the ESOP. What has surfaced thus far is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Below that surface lies the revolutionary private property philosophy and comprehensive ownership strategy first articulated by Kelso and Adler. Too scholarly in its tone to inspire a new political movement and too revolutionary in its ideas to gain the support of economists and academics wedded to orthodox ideologies and the economic status quo, this blueprint for an advanced socioeconomic order seldom is associated with the history of ESOP, although both were inspired by the same person, San Francisco lawyer and investment banker Louis O. Kelso. When this writer first became associated with Kelso in 1965, to most politicians, businessmen, and labor leaders, ESOP sounded like the author of ancient parables and Kelso was a famous winning race horse. By 1972 several dozen ESOPs were established. Since Congress legitimated the ESOP in 1974, an
