1. Johnboy on December 15, 2011 at 3:28 pm said:
1) point of info: US is a mixed economy
2) opinion: which sometimes exemplifies the worst side of its
capitalistic element
3) as with government in general, we employ it precisely b/c
we are not angels
4) so, it can always be easily critiqued over against idealist
notions but less easily from a practical perspective, in my
view
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johnboy on December 16, 2011 at 6:39 am said:
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In New Orleans, the monks at our local abbey make and sell
wooden caskets and bake and give away bread loaves to the
poor. At Gethsemani in Kentucky, the monks make and sell
fruitcakes, fudge and cheese. Wouldn’t we find it rather
perverted if, in those monasteries, those monks that produced
the goods hoarded the incoming capital allocating only a
nominal entitlement sum to the others who were sick, elderly,
eremitic or choirmasters for the schola cantorum?
I’m among the defenders of capitalism (highly regulated in a
mixed economy) and can occasionally even defend a war. But in
both cases, I cannot make a case for either that they are
anything but necessary evils or, as we comfort ourselves in
saying, just wars. And just wars have collateral damage that
must be avoided and mitigated. And they have victims.
Capitalism is too often an American Idol and it gets
especially idolized by those who are born on third base who
like to imagine that they hit a triple. Sure, it has some
measure of meritocracy, if you were lucky enough to be given a
bat, ball and glove. I just cannot see where Fr Richard is
wrong on this one.
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