What is socialism but caring and sharing, making sure no one goes hungry or without health care, etc. The early Christian Church followed that principle, as do convents and monasteries.
I think the encyclical made it quite clear that laissez faire, cut-throat global capitalism that chews up the poor and spits them out as garbage is evil. With the only protection being “buyer beware” and sue Monsanto if you think they caused your cancer bec of all the Agent Orange released into your very poor neighborhood where they produced it (like in Mission, TX); and good luck suing them assuming you have mega-time & mega-money to do so, bec they will sue you right back for $millions claiming it was a frivolous lawsuit. The young man who lived across from the plant, who had 4 kidney transplants and brain surgery finally died last summer, so I guess he’ll never get his $2000 from the lawsuit as a small % of the “lucky” others got.
The gov does have a role in protecting our health and well-being (including environmental protections), in building roads and schools, maintaining infrastructure and enhancing it for the onslaught of climate change effects, such as Katrina and Sandy – tho the U.S. gov is failing miserably at that role. Even the most capitalistic society has elements of socialism.
I think we can all agree that in some ways and contexts capitalism and the supply/demand forces work well, assuming people aren’t being brainwashed into buying heaps of junk.* It is good for people to take responsibility for themselves and others and not fall into infantile dependency on the state (we are really disturbed by our ne’er-do-well relatives that keep hitting us up for cash, for their own sake, of course
). We want people to be as free as possible to make their own choices and become mature, conscientious adults, as long as they aren’t harming others.
In other cases capitalism does not work well. And in some cases we need government to provide protections, including laws and regulations that prevent companies and others from poisoning us and destroying our climate in which we produce our food and live relatively good and healthy lives.
So it is ridiculous to argue that capitalism is better than socialism or vice versa – both have their place and roles, and both need to pass the “common good” and “individual human dignity” tests.
*from
Laudato Si:
203. Since the market tends to promote extreme consumerism in an effort to sell its products, people can easily get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending. Compulsive consumerism is one example of how the techno-economic paradigm affects individuals. Romano Guardini had already foreseen this: “The gadgets and technics forced upon him by the patterns of machine production and of abstract planning mass man accepts quite simply; they are the forms of life itself. To either a greater or lesser degree mass man is convinced that his conformity is both reasonable and just”.144 That paradigm leads people to believe that they are free as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume. But those really free are the minority who wield economic and financial power…
204. The current global situation engenders a feeling of instability and uncertainty, which in turn becomes “a seedbed for collective selfishness”.145 When people become self-centred and self-enclosed, their greed increases. The emptier a person’s heart is, the more he or she needs things to buy, own and consume. It becomes almost impossible to accept the limits imposed by reality. In this horizon, a genuine sense of the common good also disappears. As these attitudes become more widespread, social norms are respected only to the extent that they do not clash with personal needs. So our concern cannot be limited merely to the threat of extreme weather events, but must also extend to the catastrophic consequences of social unrest. Obsession with a consumerist lifestyle, above all when few people are capable of maintaining it, can only lead to violence and mutual destruction.
