In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
Thus wrote Pope Leo XIII in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. I hope to post a few thoughts on this encyclical in the coming weeks, but I certainly encourage everyone out there to give it a read and introduce themselves to the wealth of wisdom that is Catholic social doctrine. If there is one great awakening that I’ve experienced on the last few months, it is that Capitalism is intrinsically wrong-headed. I’ve always known that aspects and symptoms of our capitalist culture were amoral and even evil, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to recognize the flaws in the foundations of capitalist thought. Economists have endeavored to isolate economics from morality as a true independent science, with laws and constructs existing completely outside the sphere of moral influence. If there is to be any improvement in our capitalist culture, we must again assert the primacy of morality and bind the system to morality rather than bending our morality to the system.
As an act of pure fanciful thought and daydreaming, I ask you all on this fine Friday afternoon (or whenever you read this) to imagine a world A.) without advertising and B.) where quality was rampant. Just think about such a world. Can you really see a world without advertising? Is it less desirable to you than our own?
More on this and related topics in the coming weeks. Have a wonderful weekend and everyone read Lepanto this Sunday!
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"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around."
- G.K. Chesterton
- G.K. Chesterton
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4 comments:
"If there is one great awakening that I’ve experienced on the last few months, it is that Capitalism is intrinsically wrong-headed."
Whoa, pahd'nuh...
If you mean chemically pure capitalism, then - yes - I heartily agree. But I have come to think of capitalism as really the closest thing to the natural default mode of human behavior. Left alone, capitalism is just what people naturally do. Find what you're good at, study and practice, and hang out a shingle. Charge what you can reasonably ask for based on the market.
I still think that, all together, it is the best system going, but its big weakness - like all man-made systems - is its vulnerability to original sin. Sooner or later, sin will bubble up and some mighty ugly patterns will begin to form. The bigger the system, the bigger and more nastier the patterns can become. This is why capitalism (like democracy) functions well only in a moral and decent society, a society still anchored in the eternal. A society very different from ours, in other words.
All the government handouts in the world won't erase the fact that we live in a society that really doesn't want to care for the hard cases - the "useless eaters", as the Nazis called them. We have decided instead to kill them, if we can, in the womb or in their hospital bed.
I know it was a strong statement, but I'll stand by it. I wish capitalism was as simple as you describe, but I think that your definition is accurate only up to "Charge what you can reasonably ask for based on the market."
I think at heart Capitalism says that you should charge whatever you need to in order to undermine opposition and increase market share. This is where I think the system is flawed. If Capitalism really meant that you charged what was reasonable I wouldn't have as much of an issue with it. If a publicly traded company decided it was very happy with its current situation and showed growth only equal to inflation over a few years would the investors be happy? The whole system encourages growth even when growth is not needed or even desired for the quality production of goods or services.
We may differ as to whether the problems are systemic, but I think current events show that it is a system so far out of a moral framework that radical change is needed for reform.
"...I think current events show that it is a system so far out of a moral framework that radical change is needed for reform."
See, I think it's US that are - more and more - far out of a moral framework, and the system is reflecting that.
Capitalism is a tool, and a very effective one.
A hammer is a very useful thing. In the hands of a carpenter, it can a grand and marvelous thing. In the hands of a sociopath, it becomes something else.
Sorry for the long lag on this reply, work has been pretty busy lately. I heartily concur that we are ultimately responsible for the moral failings of capitalism. I won't however absolve capitalism from any culpability in the failings. I think there are aspects of the system that make it prone to shallow morality, and the system itself could be fixed to offer more restraint in those areas. When we can fix people, by all means we should. When we can fix the system, by all means we should. Capitalism is certainly a tool, but I happen to think it is a flawed one.
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