Communists for Christ
http://www.boston.com/news/local/article…
… a group of Catholic academics and clergy wants to reinvigorate [ unions ] and its members
Founded by a religion professor at Manhattan College in New York, Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice… is strictly nonpartisan
Yeah, right.
though individual members are free to politick on their own. Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, supports Barack Obama, for example, and David O’Brien, a Holy Cross historian, is on a Catholic advisory committee to the Illinois senator.
So it’s a “Catholic” group, and the two cited leaders both back a pro-abortion candidate.
Got it.
“We need to think about how to rebuild an opportunity for people to make a living wage,” said Kochan… explaining the new group’s motivation.
Really?
Jesus stood for “a living wage” ?
Is that why He told the disciples and apostles to give up their possessions (because “you will have treasure in heaven”), and follow him ?
Critics accuse the Christian right of becoming an arm of the Republican National Committee.
Really? Conservative Catholics in Italy are Republicans? Conservative Catholics in China are Republicans? Conservative Catholics in Africa are Republicans?
Idiots.
“I have long been active in Democratic Party politics,” O’Brien said in an e-mail, “but in recent years, I have been far from satisfied with either party’s performance on worker justice.”
So you’re a communist, and the merely-fairly-far-left Democratic party doesn’t suit you.
OK, got it.
Harder to reach, perhaps, are her secular colleagues in economics…
“We remind students that Adam Smith was a professor of moral philosophy,”
So there folks who actually study what does and does not lift people out of poverty.
…and the fact that these folks disagree with the Catholic communists does not give the Catholic communists pause. Nope, they just declare that the economists are corrupt and evil, and move on.
OK, got it.
My take on how to earn a “living wage”?
Create enough value such that you earn a living wage.
If a man does not choose to create value, neither shall he earn a ‘living wage’.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:42 am
The Catechism seems to cover both sides of the spectrum (and sometimes in the same section!):
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2404 “In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself.” The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it fruitful and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.
2405 Goods of production – material or immaterial – such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.
2406 Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.
2410 Promises must be kept and contracts strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them are morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons – commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or labor contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith.
2424 A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. The disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.
A system that “subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to the collective organization of production” is contrary to human dignity.204 Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism. “You cannot serve God and mammon.”
2425 The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with “communism” or “socialism.” She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for “there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.” Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.
2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. “Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good.” Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
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Note that I’ve skipped over a bunch of other stuff – not that I’m trying to cherry-pick, but these serve pretty well to indicate what I meant. It’s interesting reading.