I’ve been largely absent from blogging the past few weeks (you’re welcome!) due to work. Weren’t all-nighters supposed to end in grad school? Anyway, I stumbled across a series of four videos that would make excellent primers for anyone interested in economic or political issues, including folks of a religious inclination who wish to bring Christian social thought to bear on such issues. I’ve been saying, until I’m blue in the face, that Catholics will never be taken seriously in the policy arena unless we get our economic and political understanding right.
Clik here to view.
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So blue in the face, they don’t even talk anymore. Though all economists experience the former, my students wish the latter were true.
Unfortunately, most offered Catholic opinions, informed as they are on Catholic social teaching (Rerum Novarum and such) are usually woefully ignorant of even basic economics (sometimes admittedly so). It’s great to know that the Church supports a living wage, but what exactly does that mean in practice? Is it even possible to practically implement? While the Church’s voice can legitimately be taken seriously in debates on bioethics, because Catholics have delved deeply into that and related disciplines, it seems to almost proudly stand aloof from the discipline of economics.
Check that; I suppose one could consider the antiquated antagonism of the “capital vs. labor” mentality as a branch of economics, but it’s been overturned for a few centuries now. Despite that, the Church and her social theorists seem determined to cling to economic theories that still want to rage against the (literal) machine.
These four videos provide some refreshing insights for those interested in Catholic social doctrine. Since papal encyclicals are not infallible, even those that suggest that human laborers have more dignity than human capitalists, keep an open mind and consider whether it may be time to get with the times. Watch the intro, then click the four videos that appear at the end.
