Weaving the Strands: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 2.0

FreshFish · Jan 23, 2015

Re: Weaving the Strands: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 2.0

A kerfuffle at the Catholic University of America, of all places, over the concept of free markets and private property. Their Business School is starting a program to teach business leaders on how to reconcile capitalism with Catholic teachings:

The dean of the Catholic University of America’s School of Business and Economics ... idea: A research and educational program focused on the compatibility of capitalism and Catholicism. On Thursday the university announced a $3 million grant to fund this vision.

It makes perfect sense that CUA would want to teach this topic to business leaders. Free markets have liberated more people from poverty than any other force in history. But they must also be buttressed by moral principles, such as those taught in the Catholic Church.

That, so far, seems (to me) reasonable enough. but not to some. however. and so in response to those critics,

the principles behind this initiative and the principled entrepreneurship program are consistent with Catholic teaching. Consider the seminal text on Catholicism and economics, Pope Leo XIII ’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which discusses at length the “rights and duties of capital and labor.” .... qualities that must be present in a just economic system .... includes the protection of private property and human freedom, a concern for the common good, and, most important, a deep respect for human dignity and a “preferential option” for the poor.

[Free market] Capitalism meets these criteria better than any other economic system. It is also the single most effective means of alleviating poverty. In the past 20 years alone, it has lifted more than a billion people out of extreme poverty, according to the Economist. It is also single-handedly responsible for creating a global two-billion-person middle class over the past 300 years.

But free markets only work within a moral culture [emphasis added] . When business is unmoored from a concern for the common good, capitalism can slide into cronyism and corruption—exactly what Pope Francis has critiqued in recent months. It is such perversions of a free-market economy that do not fit Catholic teaching.... Business leaders now regularly and proudly collude with politicians and bureaucrats, boosting their companies’ bottom lines at the expense of economic growth. There are subsidies that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor, handouts, mandates, favorable regulations and so on.

Such collusion leads to the corruption and collectivism that are anathema to Catholic social teaching. It assumes that government intervention is the answer to social and economic problems, misunderstanding the Catholic principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. And it subordinates the individual to the state [emphasis added], perverting or ignoring the Catholic understanding of the common good, human dignity and personal freedom.

Societies and economies that operate in this fashion inevitably harm the poor, even as they claim to do the opposite. For this reason, Pope St. John Paul II, following other popes, explicitly condemned such economies in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus. He argued that Rerum Novarum’s claim that “the working man himself would be among the first to suffer” had been borne out by the collectivist societies of the 20th century. He also commended “an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, [and] private property.”

so it's five quoted paragraphs instead of four. For some reason I suspect the author wouldn't mind....

joecct · Jan 23, 2015

Re: Weaving the Strands: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 2.0

Skymall has fallen

FreshFish · Jan 23, 2015

Re: Weaving the Strands: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 2.0

Did Jesus promote capitalism?

Matthew 25:14 - 29:

[T]he Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!"

The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.'

joecct · Feb 4, 2015

Re: Weaving the Strands: Business, Economics, and Tax Policy 2.0

Staples buying Office Depot - stock and cash deal.

FlagDUDE08 · Feb 4, 2015