I am much informed by the Austrian School of Economics, and admire their ability to predict economic events, if not timing, and perform post-mortems. They share the communists ability to get their facts straight. They are dead wrong in usury, but no one has the whole picture.
I can understand when non-Catholics cannot fathom the point of view of the pope, such as a favorite author Thos. Sowell:
Ryan McMaken is an Austrian economist and Roman Catholic and says this:
McMaken repeats Noonan's false claim that the church changed is teaching on usury, but on slavery, torture, etc, he is somewhat correct: the church got around to forbidding that which it is was previously silent.
American Catholics are usually Roman Catholic, and tend to view Roman Catholicism as an American thing, without considering the fact the Pontiff also is addressing the Idi Amins and the Kim family and Marcos and Castros of the world, not only Americans. When the church embraces Aquinas on just war, a social doctrine, anyone can make whatever they want of it, and they do. Weigel, Neuhaus, Novak all claimed church teaching was behind the Bush family criminal invasions of the Middle East. Never mind specific declarations of the pope to the contrary.
When a pope says to governments, we urge this, urge that, compare what is urged against what governments do. There is no more powerful condemnation of governments than the gap between the right thing and the done thing. This is why governments such as Kim's in North Korea and the bankers in USA so hate the Catholic Church.
If the pope talks "living wage" people will sputter "what about high school kids flipping burgers?" Well, in a socio-political system, such as capitalism, in which usury is insinuated in the patterns and practices of the economy, and the resultant slavery is rampant, and MeDonalds can wipe out the countless family burger-joint businesses with ersatz credit, leaving families short of money. Perhaps there should not be a McDonalds at all. McDonalds would not exist in a free market, and has it dawned on anyone except those versed in Church teaching on usury that at ZIRP McDonalds is dying?
Did we not at some point, during the roller coaster of centrally planned interest rates, dwell at that natural rate of interest at which the Austrians claim all is well in the economy? Like the stopped clock that is right two times a day, did the Austrians not have their time?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a teaching document (although the English language version had to be retranslated for some pretty tendentious assertions) and it is well worth having handy.
Another teaching document, the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching I long avoided, for fear of the people who recommended it, the loopy "social justice' folk that lurk around churches and organize lunches. I finally gave in and bought a copy, and I was astonished. if you know how to read Catholic teaching, to my mind, it is far better than the Catechism itself. The catechism explains the genesis of the church teachings, the Social Compendium gets to how to implement the teaching.
What you need to read is the ideas, and then work out the holistic solution. The Social Compendium does not advocate getting rid of McDonalds, but it does advocate a free market, in which there would be no McDonalds.
Update: The Bionic Mosquito excoriates the Pope for his address to congress. It is a pretty good critique. But it misses St Paul's note about praising your enemies and thus heap burning coals on their heads. Mother Teresa also said very nice things about the nefarious, to the nefarious, publicly: the Marcos, the Clintons, the Duvaliers. All were deposed or rendered impotent within months of her praises (the Clintons fell into Monicagate). Give it a couple of months, and let's see where USA government is at...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
I can understand when non-Catholics cannot fathom the point of view of the pope, such as a favorite author Thos. Sowell:
But there has also been a more ideological left. Where the Communists had their official newspaper, "The Daily Worker," there was also "The Catholic Worker" published by Dorothy Day.but you see even honest economists like Sowell are given to cheap shots when addressing what the Pope has to say. Sowell knows perfectly well that Dorothy Day was an anarchist, and an avowed enemy of communism, but he sneakily puts her in that camp. Unfair.
Ryan McMaken is an Austrian economist and Roman Catholic and says this:
As with many ideologies and religions, political ideologues of every age attempt to take something that’s much bigger than their issue-of-the-day and force it into a mold that supports their current likes and desires for public policy X.Quite true. And the reverse is true, where a Pope addresses a large issue and ideologues try to denigrate and misrepresent what is said. We see this much in libertarian and right wing circle's vis a vis this pope.
McMaken repeats Noonan's false claim that the church changed is teaching on usury, but on slavery, torture, etc, he is somewhat correct: the church got around to forbidding that which it is was previously silent.
American Catholics are usually Roman Catholic, and tend to view Roman Catholicism as an American thing, without considering the fact the Pontiff also is addressing the Idi Amins and the Kim family and Marcos and Castros of the world, not only Americans. When the church embraces Aquinas on just war, a social doctrine, anyone can make whatever they want of it, and they do. Weigel, Neuhaus, Novak all claimed church teaching was behind the Bush family criminal invasions of the Middle East. Never mind specific declarations of the pope to the contrary.
When a pope says to governments, we urge this, urge that, compare what is urged against what governments do. There is no more powerful condemnation of governments than the gap between the right thing and the done thing. This is why governments such as Kim's in North Korea and the bankers in USA so hate the Catholic Church.
If the pope talks "living wage" people will sputter "what about high school kids flipping burgers?" Well, in a socio-political system, such as capitalism, in which usury is insinuated in the patterns and practices of the economy, and the resultant slavery is rampant, and MeDonalds can wipe out the countless family burger-joint businesses with ersatz credit, leaving families short of money. Perhaps there should not be a McDonalds at all. McDonalds would not exist in a free market, and has it dawned on anyone except those versed in Church teaching on usury that at ZIRP McDonalds is dying?
Did we not at some point, during the roller coaster of centrally planned interest rates, dwell at that natural rate of interest at which the Austrians claim all is well in the economy? Like the stopped clock that is right two times a day, did the Austrians not have their time?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a teaching document (although the English language version had to be retranslated for some pretty tendentious assertions) and it is well worth having handy.
Another teaching document, the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching I long avoided, for fear of the people who recommended it, the loopy "social justice' folk that lurk around churches and organize lunches. I finally gave in and bought a copy, and I was astonished. if you know how to read Catholic teaching, to my mind, it is far better than the Catechism itself. The catechism explains the genesis of the church teachings, the Social Compendium gets to how to implement the teaching.
What you need to read is the ideas, and then work out the holistic solution. The Social Compendium does not advocate getting rid of McDonalds, but it does advocate a free market, in which there would be no McDonalds.
Update: The Bionic Mosquito excoriates the Pope for his address to congress. It is a pretty good critique. But it misses St Paul's note about praising your enemies and thus heap burning coals on their heads. Mother Teresa also said very nice things about the nefarious, to the nefarious, publicly: the Marcos, the Clintons, the Duvaliers. All were deposed or rendered impotent within months of her praises (the Clintons fell into Monicagate). Give it a couple of months, and let's see where USA government is at...
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
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