True, there has never been capitalism in which the law of the marketplace was absolute. But, many times this law has been pushed to over ride the common good, such as when we had child labor, or even today when a few companies abuse workers with horrible working conditions. I know, I worked in one. But there are many excellent corporations that take good care of their workers and offer excellent benefits of all sorts. These are to be commended, as the Church teaches.
What I want to know, is their any form of socialism that can be commended.
All forms have some central planning and some degree of theft, as far as I know.
If I can’t steal from the rich and take that money, keep some for myself, buy a car and give that to my poor brother in law, then how is it justified for the state to do so?
I found this in the encyclical Rerum Novorum:
- And in addition to injustice, it is only too evident what an upset and disturbance there would be in all classes, and to how intolerable and hateful a slavery citizens would be subjected. The door would be thrown open to envy, to mutual invective, and to discord; the sources of wealth themselves would run dry, for no one would have any interest in exerting his talents or his industry; and that ideal equality about which they entertain pleasant dreams would be in reality the levelling down of all to a like condition of misery and degradation. Hence, it is clear that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal. The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses, must be the inviolability of private property.
My question is, are there any forms of socialism that have a doctrine of only a partial community of goods? Or only a partial taking of private property? If even this isn’t allowed, then why didn’t the Catechism condemn socialism as a whole and not just certain ideologies associated with socialism.
Is it because some aspects of socialism may be good, such as the intent to help the poor, and thus the whole can’t be condemned since there is some good?
Or in the Catechism is the Church actually condemning socialism itself, and not just the ideologies associated with it, since all forms of socialism are associated with atheism, since they all advocate theft and class envy, and all forms are associated with some form of totalitarianism?
