The Pope and the Koch Brothers? | National Catholic Reporter

The Pope and the Koch Brothers? | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Well done take down of crony capitalism, which is a term capitalists use to have their cake and eat it too.  Indeed, Capitalism is how the entrepreneurs try to corner both the labor market and the product for their own benefit - and control the government to let them do it.  There is nothing about the free market or competition there.  I am not sure anyone of that stripe can can be associated with this pope, other than joining him in a "selfie" or a more official photograph from a private audience.  They do like certain bishops, however, and willingly fund a pro-life movement that serves as the permanent get out the vote organ for the Republican Party (and which does not care one bit for Democrats for Life).  



There is something to be said for a match between the libertarian view and the Catholic view on lifting people out of poverty - and that is education - although no one seems to be ready to pay anyone who is functionally illiterate a full time wage just to go to school.  It is time for the Church to spend as much on this population as it does the college bound.  Charity can never be the purview of the rich alone - government is needed to make sure the dollars are spent justly - given to those who need them and given adequately - which the conservatives are largely responsible for doing.  I would favor employer taxes over personal ones, with employers funding local education and welfare providers in order to reduce that burden - but not to make the burden optional.  It is not cheap to lift people out of poverty - or to maintain them in dignity while we do so.



Liberty is still important - not the economic kind - but the personal and social kind.  It flows from the freedom of conscience described by St. Thomas Aquinas - where the intellect informs the will, but because in this life that which compels the will, God, is not present in pure form - we must and are entitled to chose between imperfect goods.  It is not the Church's right to dictate those choices or the state to compel them - as the latter requires a police state to just that extent.  Libertarian socialists, like me, want such political force to only extend the what is required for public safety and for economic justice - a sentiment that I am sure neither Micheal Sean Winters or the Koch brothers agree with.  Can the Pope be convinced of this?   It seems to me that Francis is closer than St. John Paul to this, but who am I to judge?