I really enjoyed reading the recent Imprimis volume I get each month from Hillsdale College. If you don't get it, you should. It is free and is a great little journal. You can order it here.
Rev. Robert A. Sirico--President of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty--wrote "Socialism, Free Enterprise, and the Common Good." He begins his essay:
In chapter 21 of St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus proposes a moral dilemma in the form of a parable: A man asks his two sons to go to work for him in his vineyard. The first son declines, but later ends up going. The second son tells his father he will go, but never does. "Who," Jesus asks, "did the will of his father?" Although I am loath to argue that Jesus's point in this parable was an economic one, we may nonetheless derive from it a moral lesson with which to evaluate economic systems in terms of achieving the common good.
Essentially, he doesn't use the Bible to tell us what economic model to use in society. He does, however, analyze the benefits of Socialism and Free Enterprise for the "Common Good." He looks at the economic models with the question: what one is doing good (the will of his father)? His findings are not surprising--if you've reviewed the actual, rather than promised, benefits of each system. But having them presented with historical examples is powerful.
He says that, unlike modern Socialism, the original idea was to move everyone up. Now, it has become far more gloomy, and is striving to simply pull the rich down. But practically speaking, in the old or new forms, it does not really help everyday people.
Take East v. West Germany. Who had to build a wall to keep their people--the "commoners"--in the system? If you had to move to the Korean Peninsula, would you pick the North or the South? Would you move to Cuba or Puerto Rico, given a choice? Hong Kong/Taiwan or Mainland China?
It is telling that most, if not all, Socialist countries also come with the hitch that state-sanctioned force compels the commoners to stay. Why? Because the commoners vote with their feet. As one commenter noted a few years back: no one ever gets in a rickety raft in Miami to try to get to Cuba.
Now, Socialism's proponents will tell you about all the evils of Capitalism and the Free Market, and tell you about the glories of Socialism. But, what system actually benefits real people--not in theory, but in real life? The one doing good, not merely promising good, is what Rev. Sirico argues is the better system.
The good pours itself out,
Thomas More
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