Review: Catholic Economics, Part II | National Catholic Reporter

Review: Catholic Economics, Part II | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Modern economics in a culturally libertarian space ARE more scientific.  Scientific study is not really possible in either egalitarian realms where your intentions are constantly questioned, despotism (unless the despot approves of and can profit from your work) or hierarchism, which sees truth as something to control via dogma, not science - hence the Church's unscientific views on birth control.  Whether we culturally like the answer economics gives us is different than challenging its ability to find fact.  It can still work with a non-individual actor assumption.



Silby is conflating competition with pure competition.  There are types of competition where the powerful have an advantage, like oligopoly/oligopsony.  As an analytical principle, however violated by capitalism, competition works.  Indeed, welfare economics condemns capitalist restraint of trade from the inside as much as government act (which is usually taken at the behest of some interest).



The Affordable Care Act was not about commodifying health care - it was due to tax advantages possessed by employees of large firms that small firm employees did not get.  ACA merely have the small guys the same tax advantages.  As I said earlier this week (MSW should read the comments more), the advantages that increase prices come from monopolistic factors like one or two hospitals dominating a region (can you say INOVA or Medstar) and drug patents.  Of course, the GOP plan is to force competition onto buyers by taking away all tax advantages but not on sellers who keep their territories and patents.



Sibley's critique of global competition (and free trade) could also have been taken from the introduction to Capital, by Karl Marx, who decries the same thing.  The problem is not compeition, its the economic power of capitalism.  At least Marx said the word (OK, he coined it). Marx also got labor right, even before the term monopsony was coined.  The Church gets it right too, but calling for capitalists to be moral, even Catholic capitalists, is too much to ask.  While solidarity helps, ownership of the workplace is what is essential - not in revolutionary terms like Marx advocated - its too hard to work that - but in cooperative terms, like Mondragon and American cooperative farmers (who were organized by "Dad" Allen - my great grandfather - who was a member of the Disciples of Christ - so the Popes do not have a monopoly on proper economic thinkig.



The answer to free and even fair trade is multi-national employee ownership - where employees at the same firm are paid at the same standard of living, so exploitation is no longer an issue.



If Catholic Social Teaching does not have some distrust of government then it should.  Not in goverenmetn as a useful authority, but in legislators captured by the financial favors of the capitalists.  Its why Citizens United is so important and so impossible to overturn, because capitalism is the problem that simple finance reform won't solve. Finding firms to shift away from capitalism to more cooperative ownership and control and having those firms beat capitalist firm in competition is the answer here - for coopeation will win.  That is the way forward.