MGB:_There are two types of economic liberty. The one that people trumpet Is the classic perfectly competitive market for wages and prices where the market price is a true indicator of supply and demand. The second type glorifies the ability to exercise corporate (and) management power over both product markets and labor markets. That is liberty for the few and it is what Cato, Acton and company are really defending because, after all, the wealthy and their CEOs deserve what they are getting. This secular form of the prosperity gospel (which is the heart of conservatism) is what the Church condemns. The question that we argue about is how to remedy this concentration of power without making things worse. Traditionally, the Church has supported regulatory action, as well as a third way cooperative economy. There are companies that nibble around the edges of this, but none have gotten to what is possible (where workers control both the means of production and the means of consumption).
Social liberty is different. It can also be seen in two ways. The first is as autonomy, which is a blank check for individuals on morality. The second is humanisticly, that morality is meant for individuals to lead the most fulfilling lives possible, rather than being some test to see who gets to go to Heaven. In the second rendering gays are encouraged to marry rather than be celibate and late term abortion are allowed if they are obviously necessary. Indeed, the whole obsession with allowable sexual pleaseure goes away. That is what the Church growing up looks like. (It would also ordain women).
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