Posted: August 2nd, 2007, 7:29 pmI was raised in a welfare community sponsored by liberals during the eighties -- I despise socialism. The powerful elitists -- who were, by the way, extremely rich -- maintained their power (and subsequent benefits which flowed there from) by keeping the poor -- poor; by keeping hard working single mothers, like my mom who was raising five kids, from saving money by penalizing them for trying, making the effort to escape almost pointless. We did -- she did -- finally escape with the help of her live-in-boyfriend to whom she's now married; but I've seen first hand what good intentions "no matter what" lead to, and I don't like it one bit.
That said I also share no special affinity for greed driven, immigrant exploiting, big business and the brain sucking, soul sapping advertisement industry by which it has fastened itself to our very (American) way of life: we need a fiercely mounted attack against Capitalism by practicing and disciplined Christians -- but a balanced attack, not one conjuring up the specter of tyrannical tending socialism; a moderated attack, not one over-reacting to the very real evils of Capitalism by submitting to the opposite evils of Socialism.
Am I a dreamer? Maybe... you can judge for yourself by checking out the couple links I’ll provide :-)
Part of my conversion to Catholicism was finding it’s both/and balance (as opposed to either/or alternatives) on many paradoxical issues. The balanced principles of Catholicism, once again, did not fail to impress me on this paradoxical matter, the explication of which I’ll eagerly defer to more articulate adherents than myself:
Practical Distributivism: The Just Wage vs. The Just Income --
http://www.medaille.com/pracdist.htm
A QUICK COMPARISON OF CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE "JUST THIRD WAY" -- http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/comparison3rdway.htm