Capitalist? Socialist? Distributist.

See Bill Powell's recent article at Inside Catholic and support him with your comments.

3 comments:

Anonymous,  Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:46:00 AM CDT  

"Distributive justice begins with a just wage. Does a legal living wage cost "jobs"? Absolutely. So do laws against fraud -- in the short term. But we clear these bad jobs to make room for good jobs with good businesses -- if you can't make aluminum without paying more than a buck an hour, move over.

"Unions are an essential (though abused) tool for defending a living wage. But income is unreliable without ownership. Distributism focuses on who owns the tools that make wealth; a company should be owned by its workers."

So, what does he mean that unions are an essential "though abused tool" for defending a living wage?

To me, a true trade union battles in the good fight for Solidarity, for a society where everyone has a good job with a comfortable wage. The true trade union is at the core of a sensible and just society.

Over a couple of generations the American trade unions have jettisoned the virtues of family and Solidarity and become cheerleaders and punt men for dog-eat-dog competition. The unions are corporatist and capitalist. They are helping to put wages and working conditions into competition with slave states. They complain about unfair trade agreements but do nothing to stop them. They try to explain away the 37-million member American underclass as the "reality" of getting "competitive".

So, is this what he means when he writes that unions are an "abused tool" in the defense of a just wage?

-Tom Laney

Anonymous,  Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:50:00 AM CDT  

Sorry, I typoed in the next to last Par. Punt men should be POINT men.

Anonymous,  Friday, October 24, 2008 at 8:21:00 AM CDT  

I failed the security check at Bill's site so am copying my rejected post there, to here. Man! There are a lot of post there defending the capitalist hogs!:


"Unions are an essential (though abused) tool for defending a living wage." - Bill Powell

What does Bill mean by this?

Modern unions are tools of the capitalists. They assist the corporations in placing American wages and working conditions in dog-eat-dog competition with slave states. They have done absolutely nothing for the 37-million Americans in poverty, other than to add steadily to their numbers.

It is difficult for me to understand how any human being can today argue for capitalism when the damage the capitalists do to our families, communities and world is so apparent. Why argue with these people?

We need to return to the power of Solidarity and true trade unionism. It's amazing how capitalist hearing improves when there's no noise in the factories. Or, when the docks are quiet.

The Trade Unions need to make a comeback. And this time, before we act, we should be clear that our philosophy and economics are soundly seated in Distributism.

-Tom Laney

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