Is Capitalism Moral? | National Catholic Reporter

Is Capitalism Moral? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: There is a difference between free markets, which have perfect competition, and capitalism, where capitalists have a thumb on the scale in both hiring and sales.  As long as this goes unremarked on, we are stuck with inequality.  The reason the government programs of the past were created was to ward of a radicalized labor movement, which included a strong dose of socialism.  Until labor gets that back, it will continue to lose ground.  No firm that is employee-owned and controlled is going to have a huge difference between what workers and the CEOs make.  Indeed, they would insist on an open auction for all management jobs, very much leveling the playing field.

Additionally, even free markets are incapable of paying just wages to large families.  Younger workers with with new skills and no children will always out-bid middle-age workers with families and older training.  Only by distributing part of salary as ownership and having a separate, tax supported, living wage (of say $1000 per child per month) will any kind of equality be reached.  Interestingly enough, that is actually possible by consolidating poverty programs and tax benefits into one refundable child tax credit.