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billcu1
Guest
Does the church stand anywhere on economic philosophies like capitalism or socialism?
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devoutchristian
Guest
The Church states that socialism and unregulated Capatilism are wrong.
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Aelred_Minor
Guest
Right. The Church recognizes a limited right to property which is subsidiary to the universal destination of goods.
That is, the physical world and all that is in it is given first and foremost to all humanity. We are subsequently to distribute and use these goods among ourselves justly and charitably. Personal property and justice in things like buying and selling are important components of this distribution, but are at the service of the more general gift of material goods to all human beings. When property rights and associated concepts begin to work against this distributive justice rather than for it they lose moral legitimacy.
That’s the idea behind the ancient Christian principle of the innocence of the poor man who “steals” the bread he needs to live. Assuming he had no other way to support himself and assuming the man he took the bread from was not similarly destitute (or reduced to such destitution by having the bread taken), such a man does not actually commit theft against the previous owner; he merely took and used what was rightfully his. If anything it is the previous owner, if he refused to give bread to the starving man, who was the thief, withholding from the poor man the bread that by right already belonged to him.
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billcu1
Guest
All belongs to all you say. Sounds llike socialism your describing.
Right. The Church recognizes a limited right to property which is subsidiary to the universal destination of goods.
That is, the physical world and all that is in it is given first and foremost to all humanity. We are subsequently to distribute and use these goods among ourselves justly and charitably. Personal property and justice in things like buying and selling are important components of this distribution, but are at the service of the more general gift of material goods to all human beings. When property rights and associated concepts begin to work against this distributive justice rather than for it they lose moral legitimacy.
That’s the idea behind the ancient Christian principle of the innocence of the poor man who “steals” the bread he needs to live. Assuming he had no other way to support himself and assuming the man he took the bread from was not similarly destitute (or reduced to such destitution by having the bread taken), such a man does not actually commit theft against the previous owner; he merely took and used what was rightfully his. If anything it is the previous owner, if he refused to give bread to the starving man, who was the thief, withholding from the poor man the bread that by right already belonged to him.
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devoutchristian
Guest
That’s not what he’s saying. Everyone has a right to that which is necessary for his survival. This does not conflict with private ownership of property.
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Aelred_Minor
Guest
Correct. Personal ownership of property is in fact extremely important. People need reasonable assurance that they will get a return on invested work or resources, that strangers will not move into their house tomorrow, etc. The point is that such property rights are not absolute but rather subsidiary to the universal destination of goods.
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1AugustSon7
Guest
I assure you what the poster was describing was not socialism.
Governments have always had a moral right -a right from God- to tax their subjects. Taxes are not a sin. Legitimate public authority has a right to confiscate your goods and put them to use for the public or common good/welfare. No Christian ever doubted this. Jesus Himself affirmed it. All authority comes from God: if the Romans were sinning by taxing their subjects then Our Lord would not have been afraid to point it out. He never failed to point out sin masquerading as something legitimate. Taxation - if it were a sin - would have been the greatest crime sin going. Absolute private property is an anarchistic doctrine.
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