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iloveangels
Guest
Maybe we should discuss why Americans have a strange compulsion to pass judgment on people and situations they’re not even really involved in. Why do they do that?
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epan
Guest
Do you mean like this?
“Here we go again with busybodying. It would be up to the charity to decide if they want the donation. NOT YOU. You have nothing to say about it and neither do I.”
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mommamia
Guest
Then start a thread. Americans aren’t the only ones who do this. That’s pretty much what internet forums are for, if you don’t like it no one is forcing you to come here.
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iloveangels
Guest
Not a chance. I can post here if I want to post here.
And nobody answered my question. Why do people who don’t even run the food bank think they can barge in and tell the people who run the food bank what to do?
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mommamia
Guest
As long as they call themselves a Catholic charity, they are a representative of the Faith. If a Catholic charity was counseling women to get abortions darn right I’d speak out, loudly and publicly. Now, if they want to take the name Catholic out of their mission, that would be different.
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curlycool89
Guest
Because this is an philosophical question in the area of ethics. And we want to discuss normatively, which is what they ought to have done in such a situation.
The real question is why are you afraid of us having a discussion? The Church has never been afraid of discorse, so why are you trying so hard to suppress any dialogue?
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iloveangels
Guest
The word “Catholic” is now in the public domain. You can’t protect it. Even the bishops can’t protect it. The Church doesn’t own the word anymore.
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iloveangels
Guest
So what are your qualifications as a philosopher? Membership in a chatroom?
Everybody thinks they’re ripping Aristotle and most people couldn’t reason their way out of a paper bag with a GPS, a map and a flashlight.
And the fact remains, that unless you actually run the food bank, you don’t set the policies for the food bank. The people who run the food bank do, and it’s their business whose donations they choose to accept.
I remember Mother Teresa used to turn down donations too. She used to catch it from busybodies too. Didn’t stop her either.
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Arizona_Mike
Guest
“Tuscon: America’s Most Mispelled City.”
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Faithdancer
Guest
Well, I certainly hope that Casa Maria Free Kitchen and Casa Maria Catholic Worker Community doesn’t accept donations from organizations which fund or otherwise openly support Planned Parenthood (Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, Sears, JC Penney, etc. etc.) or legalizing same sex “marriage” (Target, JC Penney, Amazon, etc.), either…because abortion and same sex “marriage” are antithetical to Catholic teachings.
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Swiss_Guy
Guest
“Tuscon: America’s Most Mispelled City.”
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thomasf
Guest
I’m anti-union. Should my parish reject my weekly offering?
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beehumble
Guest
Trying to compare Wal-mart to a known drug dealer? While we are not to cooperate implicitly or explicitly with evil, first, there has to be an evil. I am sure the Church would not state that Wal-mart is evil.
I have no skin in the game, but I do know part of the other side of the story. A small town 45 minutes outside of San Antonio, Texas had a Wal-mart move in; some hated it, some liked it. Those who liked it appreciated the large variety of items they could now buy without having to go to San Antonio. They also appreciated the better prices.
You see, those holy mom-and-pops knew they were the only place certain items could be purchased in town, so they jacked up those prices to close to double what people in other areas paid for those things, knowing the town folk had no choice but to pay it or drive 45 minutes (one-way, so 90 minute round trip) to San Antonio to get it. They made a lot of money off their neighbors, and became well-off and the big-fish in that little town, basically running the place. They hated the new Wal-mart, and, being in political power in their little town, they tried to keep the Wal-mart competition out of their little gold mine.
So it can cut both ways.
God bless you.
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Ridgerunner
Guest
Walmart is the lightning rod for low-priced retailing. But there are big retailers and even small retailers whose prices are even lower than Walmart’s, depending on the product. In my area, Walmart’s prices may be lower in general for a wider array of goods, but there are more specialized stores that have more and better stuff at lower prices.
Perhaps one of the best local examples I know is the outcome for a hardware store; a “mom and pop” that had been in business for 70 years or so. When Walmart came to a near location, people predicted its demise, but it did just fine. Several years later, when Lowe’s located nearby, that was the end, and immediately too.
Local pharmacies underprice Walmart here. Some of the chain grocers underprice Walmart consistently. Almost any gun dealer underprices Walmart and sells better quality as well.
Walmart’s business model is both wider and narrower. They stock only the things that will fly off the shelves in a very short space of time, but over a wide range of goods. So, in general for example, Walmart’s range of grocery items is almost always more limited than that of some of its competitors. Its range of tools is always inferior to Lowe’s.
Perhaps one of the best local examples I know is the outcome for a hardware store; a “mom and pop” that had been in business for 70 years or so. When Walmart came to a near location, people predicted its demise, but it did just fine. Several years later, when Lowe’s located nearby, that was the end, and immediately too.
Local pharmacies underprice Walmart here. Some of the chain grocers underprice Walmart consistently. Almost any gun dealer underprices Walmart and sells better quality as well.
Walmart’s business model is both wider and narrower. They stock only the things that will fly off the shelves in a very short space of time, but over a wide range of goods. So, in general for example, Walmart’s range of grocery items is almost always more limited than that of some of its competitors. Its range of tools is always inferior to Lowe’s.
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curlycool89
Guest
I’m sorry to make you eat your own words, but I’m a seminarian who’s currently studying philosophy (almost done, actually), including what normative means, and what the field of ethics is about. When I use terms like this, it’s because I know what they mean.So what are your qualifications as a philosopher? Membership in a chatroom?
Everybody thinks they’re ripping Aristotle and most people couldn’t reason their way out of a paper bag with a GPS, a map and a flashlight.
Speak of the devil, I’ve actually studied Aristotle, and Plato, and even Boethius (most people here probably have no idea who that is, but he’s pretty important in the Christian philosophical tradition).
Also, you were probably looking for Socrates (although we don’t actually have any of his writings, just what Plato puts into his mouth).
Expected response to this: “Well, nobody cares about your philosophical ramblings”.
Of course, that’s must be why the Vatican requires all Seminarians to take a certain amount of philosophy before they can take theology. And of course, we’d have to discount Bl. John Paul the Great, who was a philosopher by training.
And philosophers can still comment because it is a normative question, what ought they to have done in this situation. The most prudent, and (ironically) charitable response would have been to say “no thank you” and nothing else. The fact that they went into the papers and near-slandered Walmart was completely over the line.
Maybe you’ve missed this, because I’ve only said it like a half-dozen time, I have no problem with them refusing the donation. My only concern is how they acted after the fact.
Somehow I don’t remember Mother Teresa ever calling the papers and celebrating how she’d never take “blood money” though. It probably would have taken away from that other thing she did. You know, the taking care of the poor part; it doesn’t leave much time for
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epan
Guest
So far, it is cutting out the middle class, and making the top 1% richer. Wealth at the top has quintupled, while real wages have declined, in spite of worker productivity doubling.
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iloveangels
Guest
If Walmart’s business model is worse than local businesses at the same time and place, then that Walmart will fail. If not, then it won’t. Easy peasy. And all this ridiculous anger will have been for nothing.
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iloveangels
Guest
NO, because here’s the big secret nobody wants to talk about. The Church doesn’t have unions. And they shouldn’t either. YOu think the Church is corrupt now? It’d be 1000 times worse if it was unionized.
Suudy
Active member
Emphasis mine.
Why do people keep saying this? I’ve posted on this plenty of times.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=9169864&postcount=9
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iloveangels
Guest
People keep repeating what they want to hear, regardless of whether it’s true or not, sometimes. This is so particularly about politics and economics. What you’re really hearing may not be facts about the economy but rather gripes about jealousy, or opinions about political force that they want to see used to get what they want.
This is not such a strange thing. People do these kinds of things all the time. It’s important to be able to spot it when this is what’s going on. This is because if you argue what you think is the problem and it isn’t the problem, you’re wasting your time. And it can be frustrating and misleading.
You can probe around to see what the real problem is but there are some things that people don’t like to admit.
This happens in a lot of subjects too. It even happens with religion.
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