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Robert_Sock
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What’s preventing the feeding of all people? We live in such a technologically advanced world, yet we cannot care for our own.
Is it capitalism?
Is it capitalism?
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grasscutter
Guest
There is most certainly enough food. Corrupt governments and regimes often prevent the equitable distribution of food and other necessities.
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irishOntarian
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JNdoum
Guest
In a sense, it is not so much capitalism but the lack of charity most of us have, and the way that the poor have been cut off from the rich for so long. We live in a society where many people among us are homeless or without food, and we neither see them nor know they are this way. Because of this, we cannot easily notice and help them in their poverty. Such things as shelters and soup kitchens exist, but not many people know about them, and so they don’t give. Companies which produces large amounts of food never consider giving surplus to the poor. We have become a very hedonistic and uncaring people; we can’t really see the problem, and so we don’t really feel motivated to change it. But as you have seen and noticed it, I suggest that you be the change you want to see in the world, and seek out the poor and help them in any way that you can. I plan on doing more once I am old enough to have a job, and can give some to those in need. You might consider patronizing a single individual, or helping out at a local charity. The possibilities are limitless. God bless you for your consideration! 
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Abu
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Hardly!
The sneer of “capitalism” came from the Karl Marx of Communism, and Bl John Paul II in Centesimus Annus clearly dislikes the term, preferentially substituting instead, and seeing the great worth of, the “modern business economy” and the functioning of the “free market”, as well as the “market economy or simply free economy.” (#42).
Not only has free enterprise raised the welfare of untold millions out of poverty, but is emphatically affirmed by Bl John Paul II.
There is a solid basis of economic Catholic thought from the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century the Late Scholastics who were Thomists (followers of St Thomas) “writing and teaching at the University of Salamanca in Spain, sought to explain the full range of human action and social; organization.” They “observed the existence of economic law, inexorable forces of cause and effect that operate very much as other natural laws. Over the course of several generations, they discovered and explained the laws of supply and demand, the cause of inflation, the operation of foreign exchange rates, and the subjective nature of economic value…” For these reasons Joseph Schumpeter applauded them as the first real economists. (Thomas E Woods Jr, The Church And The Market, Lexington Books, 2005, p 8).
In today’s world it is vital to explain what free enterprise is about. No wonder Pope Benedict XVI felt it necessary to teach that “Society does not have to protect itself from the market, as if the development of the latter were ipso facto to entail the death of authentically human relations…Therefore it is not the instrument that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.” (Caritas et Veritate, Benedict XVI, 2009, #36).
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Abu
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Totally unwarranted – and still obsessed with the sneer.
Some PEOPLE are greedy, unjust, intemperate, swindle, cheat.
Like so much teaching, Catholic social teaching has developed and the recognition of the worth of the free economy is confirmed by Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus, built on the fundamental human right to economic initiative in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.
What is missed here is that the free enterprise system was painstakingly developed by the Catholic Late Scholastics – it is absolutely fundamental to human nature, as is the right to economic initiative that enabled the escape from dire poverty of untold millions. The light of truth cannot be hidden under a bushel. They employed logic and reasoning for the development of mankind. Chafuen incisively points out: “The Doctors offered utilitarian arguments to show that goods that are privately owned are better used than commonly owned goods. This explanation offers a budding theory of economic development: the division of goods and their ultimate possession by private individuals facilitates increased production.” Christians For Freedom, Alejandro A Chafuen, Ignatius, 1986].
Free enterprise is not “greed driven” it is common good driven for the welfare of the greatest number and dependant on consumer satisfaction and competition, dependant on the laws of cause and effect involving God-given reason, and based on a standard social principle of Christ’s Church – subsidiarity.
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nordskoven
Guest
Papa Doc and Baby Doc and even a Catholic priest-president were overseers of Haiti’s tragic devastation while their neighbor, the Dominican Republic, thrived. Blame voodoo before you blame capitalism. Haiti has kwashiorkor, that distended belly seen in protein starvation. The starvation is partly due to parasites and diarrhea, so de-worming programs and fresh water supplies must be emplaced before strides can be made. Action may be taken through many venues with a number Christian organizers and organizations, so rather than ask, “Why?” perhaps one can ask, “How can I help?”
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Ridgerunner
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Not quite true. I have seen food companies give enormous amounts of food to the poor, usually through either governmental agencies or charitable groups. That’s not entirely unselfish, of course, because they get to deduct the value of it.
Back in the Clinton administration, I even saw one huge food company offer tons upon tons of meat to be shipped to Russia when that country really was in a bad way. That requires government approval here. This government turned it down. I never understood why.
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Ridgerunner
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This isn’t a really great example, but it’s the kind of thing a lot of food companies do. Also, they provide a lot under other programs. But this is the only one I could find readily.
meatpoultry.com/News/News%20Home/Business/2012/4/Tyson%20unveils%20mobile%20feeding%20unit.aspx
meatpoultry.com/News/News%20Home/Business/2012/4/Tyson%20unveils%20mobile%20feeding%20unit.aspx
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JNdoum
Guest
Thank you for the reply. I should always remember to never say never.
I always love to see people giving, and I hope companies like this lead the way for others. I recall Tide once doing something towards washing clothes for the poor, now that I think of it. Perhaps I was in the mind that more companies could do more. I was thinking of WalMart at that specific time, I recall.
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