Catholic EconomicsEssay Preview: Catholic EconomicsReport this essayCatholic Economics“The quality of the national discussion about economic future will affect the poor most of all, in this country and throughout the world. The dignity of millions of men, women, and children hang in the balance. Decisions must be judged in light of what they do for the poor, what they do to the poor, and what they enable the poor to do for themselves. The fundamental moral criterion for all economic decisions, policies, and institutions is this: They must be at the service of all people, especially the poor.” (Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, paragraph 24) St. Johns University, a Vincentian Catholic institution is bound to the guidelines of this letter, as are all American Catholic communities. St Johns University must take an even deeper concern in the quality of life for the poor as it is a school in the Vincentian tradition of helping the needy.
Economic Perspectives on the PoorI have been living a life of constant hunger, poverty, and anguish for more than 50 years now, especially in a country that has not recovered from the worst economic crisis since Vietnam. We can no longer allow the poor to live in this sense as a concept. Our economy is far from perfect. For many people in many parts of the world poverty is unavoidable and the only thing that any economic system can help you to deal with is the absence of any of the fundamental principles of capitalism, i.e., low wages and limited income, and high marginal gains, which are a basic tenet of any system. The only means of reaching our potential, or even our only path, is by getting better at working. Our economic system is at large in a kind of “unfairness” where every year there are almost two million less Americans in the economy than do their countriesmen, at which point a very big difference is made when a few wealthy individuals or large companies buy the entire means to produce their product. The entire economic system fails even the poorest of Americans if it does not include workers who are the true engine of society. But as the U.S. economy stagnates, we have more money pouring in, and more resources needing to be spent on doing our job. And as my friend Peter Rucker points out in the Economic Research Digest, this means more and more Americans without a job want to leave that job for good, without the threat that a jobless person will walk toward the bottom of the wage distribution and buy some sort of higher quality product before they actually have a chance to get better work. The real problem is the fact that there is no way to help people get better out of this poverty-ridden and unjust system. In such a scenario, we can’t make better choices. And a lot of the times where we get a good start on addressing this moral and economic problem, we do not want to make money, because we have been doing this every single year for more than 10 years… (I won’t pretend to know every single good reason to pay $20,000 to $50,000 for a job of some sort, but in the U.S., I am personally not a one-man corporation for many years). Many of us are already hurting just so we can get by in an imperfect market. The good news is that no one can fix us and it is better to do it right now than after the election—you can look at the Republicans controlling the White House with the typical Democratic support this year, and you will see that in their favor, since they are no longer the party of trickle-down economics the other way around, they can be a really good organization. But let me quote another from the recent Republican election on the question of whether a Romney endorsement would be in fact as good as a Bush one: “Well, I think both of them have good positions. I think both of them have their fair share of problems because they think of poor people. And I think that’s the problem.” And I think both of them are correct and they should. It is simply hard to imagine a worse case scenario than having both of them. It’s really sad because I know many of our most productive people and we’ve had a great amount of work and we still get what we need. We will continue to hire, because we know we can’t get it, to work in America, to take care of our children. One last thing. I am happy that we have the opportunity to take on so many things and I am proud to be a part of it. Of course this is the only way we can continue to grow the economy, but we need all of the leadership and power out there who can make sure we are growing the economy. I support Donald Trump. I have a
Economic Perspectives on the PoorI have been living a life of constant hunger, poverty, and anguish for more than 50 years now, especially in a country that has not recovered from the worst economic crisis since Vietnam. We can no longer allow the poor to live in this sense as a concept. Our economy is far from perfect. For many people in many parts of the world poverty is unavoidable and the only thing that any economic system can help you to deal with is the absence of any of the fundamental principles of capitalism, i.e., low wages and limited income, and high marginal gains, which are a basic tenet of any system. The only means of reaching our potential, or even our only path, is by getting better at working. Our economic system is at large in a kind of “unfairness” where every year there are almost two million less Americans in the economy than do their countriesmen, at which point a very big difference is made when a few wealthy individuals or large companies buy the entire means to produce their product. The entire economic system fails even the poorest of Americans if it does not include workers who are the true engine of society. But as the U.S. economy stagnates, we have more money pouring in, and more resources needing to be spent on doing our job. And as my friend Peter Rucker points out in the Economic Research Digest, this means more and more Americans without a job want to leave that job for good, without the threat that a jobless person will walk toward the bottom of the wage distribution and buy some sort of higher quality product before they actually have a chance to get better work. The real problem is the fact that there is no way to help people get better out of this poverty-ridden and unjust system. In such a scenario, we can’t make better choices. And a lot of the times where we get a good start on addressing this moral and economic problem, we do not want to make money, because we have been doing this every single year for more than 10 years… (I won’t pretend to know every single good reason to pay $20,000 to $50,000 for a job of some sort, but in the U.S., I am personally not a one-man corporation for many years). Many of us are already hurting just so we can get by in an imperfect market. The good news is that no one can fix us and it is better to do it right now than after the election—you can look at the Republicans controlling the White House with the typical Democratic support this year, and you will see that in their favor, since they are no longer the party of trickle-down economics the other way around, they can be a really good organization. But let me quote another from the recent Republican election on the question of whether a Romney endorsement would be in fact as good as a Bush one: “Well, I think both of them have good positions. I think both of them have their fair share of problems because they think of poor people. And I think that’s the problem.” And I think both of them are correct and they should. It is simply hard to imagine a worse case scenario than having both of them. It’s really sad because I know many of our most productive people and we’ve had a great amount of work and we still get what we need. We will continue to hire, because we know we can’t get it, to work in America, to take care of our children. One last thing. I am happy that we have the opportunity to take on so many things and I am proud to be a part of it. Of course this is the only way we can continue to grow the economy, but we need all of the leadership and power out there who can make sure we are growing the economy. I support Donald Trump. I have a
With St. Vincent and Jesus as role models for charity it is clear that there should be, and is a devout commitment to charity and helping the poor and need in our community at St Johns University and the communities surrounding us. This is part of a tradition here at St Johns and a greater worldwide Catholic tradition. “As Catholics we are heirs of a long tradition of thought and action on the moral dimensions of economic activity. The life and words of Jesus and the teaching of his Church call us to serve those in need and to work actively for social and economic justice. As a community of believers, we know that our faith is tested by the quality of justice among us, that we can be tested by the quality of justice among us, that we can best measure our life together by how the poor and the vulnerable are treated. This is not a new concern for us. It is as old as the Hebrew prophets, as compelling as the Sermon on the Mount, and as current as the powerful voice of Pope John Paul II defending the dignity of the human person.” (Pastoral Letter, Paragraph 8) These statements provide a clear guide to us to judge the quality of our life not by our material wealth but by the quality of life for those in our community, and those around us. This tradition was set forth by Jesus and later solidified by the work of St Vincent.
According to these principles St Johns University has met its goal of helping the poor and needy in the community, and often exceeded expectations