ACA only increases the problems.
Progressives have made idleness pay more than employment.
Nineteen eighty-two was not a happy year for freedom. A severe and protracted recession gripped America. Many were beginning to wonder if Ronald Reagan was going to be a one-termer. Unemployment in Britain hit a postwar high. Across the Channel, François Mitterrand was busy nationalizing banks and raising taxes. Daniel Ortega’s Sandinistas were firmly in control in […]
One of the main criticisms of the market economy leveled by people of faith is that the market thrives on competition, incentivizing the voracious and oppositional features of human existence. Walter Rauschenbusch captured this concern in his classic exposition of what he called “the law of tooth and nail” in Christianizing the Social Order (1912). “The moral […]
To say that our public discourse today stands in need of some improvement is undoubtedly an understatement, but perhaps no area of our common life requires more careful consideration than our political speech. All too often we find public discussions of political economy cast in stark terms, such as “socialism” versus “capitalism.” Very often these […]
The title of this article, “What Does Centesimus Annus Really Teach?,” seems to imply that there might be some dispute about the teaching of Centesimus Annus, the latest of the three social encyclicals written by our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. And this is correct. For when Centesimus was issued in 1991 it generated an unusual […]
In Part 1 of this article, I pointed out that a purpose of the Keynesian redistribution of wealth was to keep the engine of Capitalism working. Its adherents advocate it from a sincere belief that this is the best way to help everyone. It sustains the poor and maintains the wealthy. The conservative and libertarian […]
It is sometimes said, following Milton Friedman’s insight, that business is not a friend to the free market, and the truth of this is no more evident than in recent battles between established restaurateurs and operators of mobile eateries. Once a business becomes established and enjoys a measure of success, a narrow view of its […]
[How would you live, Pompey? By being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? Is it a lawful trade? —Escalus, Measure for Measure] Enforce morality. The answer to critics who so frequently question the role of the state in Distributism or Catholic Social Teaching is simple. Excepting those who prefer anarchy, libertarian “free market” advocates and […]
In a recent piece for the Wall Street Journal, Andy Stern, an Obama insider and one of organized labor’s more aggressive personalities, praised what he called “China’s superior economic model.” Does China have a superior economic model? That depends: Superior to what? Mr. Stern, who headed the Service Employees International Union, cited Andy Grove, founder […]
