Is Capitalism Dead?
The critics of capitalism are using the most recent financial crisis as an opportunity to declare an end to the free market system. President Nicholas Sarkozy of France, for example, pronounced an end to “laissez-faire capitalism.” In response to criticisms that he was “speaking like a true European socialist,” Sarkozy responded by saying “Have I become socialist? Perhaps.” (The Economist, Nov. 13, 2008)
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has been even more strident in his criticism of capitalism, declaring “Some European leaders have called upon to reform capitalism. I consider that we have to bury capitalism. It is a perverse model that must rest in peace. We say here, and I speak for Venezuela, that this crisis will only be solved through socialism.” (El Universal, Nov 26, 2008)
Socialists have been hoping for the death of the free market system for years, so we should take some comfort from the fact that they remain predictable. Socialists will continue to prematurely declare the death of capitalism just as certainly as they will continue to deny that there are severe flaws intrinsic to socialism, or admit that socialist policies tend toward oppression and misery.
Catholics too would do well to recall the words of Pius XI, who used the authority of his office to pass definitive judgment on the capitalist system: “There remains to us, after again calling to judgment the economic system now in force and its most bitter accuser, Socialism, and passing explicit and just sentence upon them…. With all his energy Leo XIII sought to adjust [the captialist] system according to the norms of right order; hence, it is evident that this system is not to be condemned in itself. And surely it is not of its own nature vicious.” (Quadragesimo Anno, 98-101)
Pius XI defines the capitalist system in the most basic terms as an economic system “wherein, generally, some provide capital while others provide labor for a joint economic activity.” (QA, 100) There can be no doubt that this definition applies as much to today’s economic system as it did to that of 1931. The capitalist or free market system is not to be condemned in itself, and is not of its own nature vicious. Our problems lie not with our systems but with ourselves and our own fallen natures. As a good shepherd, Pope Pius XI not only diagnosed the illness but pointed to the cure: “the first and most necessary remedy is a reform of morals.” (QA, 98)
Catholics wishing to reform markets must work to reform morals. The path to social renewal lies not with empty promises of socialists but with the moral life and the practice of virtue.
Copyright © 2008 by Joseph Burke. This article may not be reproduced in any form without the author’s express written permission. Posted on A&M Blog with Author’s permission.
Excellent post! Thank you. Last night on Hannity and Colmes I heard Dick Morris describe George Bush as the most socialist president we’ve ever had. Not sure if that’s accurate, but with numerous nationalizations and $7.8 trillion in tax dollars at risk and no end in sight, it’s beginning to look a lot like… hmmm… not sure yet. It raises a question in my mind. What exactly is the free economy, as Pope John Paul II called it? Here’s one answer from Raymond J. de Souza in a post at the Acton Institute’s blog:
“When John Paul endorses “capitalism” or the free economy, as he prefers to call it, it is because it best allows for the freedom the human person needs to exercise his creativity. In addition, the free economy encourages producers to be attentive to the needs of others–namely, their customers–and to cooperate with others, in freedom and trust, in order to meet those needs in an efficient way. In short, it encourages economic actors, as producers, to be of service to their neighbors.”
http://www.acton.org/publications/randl/rl_article_321.php
interesting, and isn’t “redistribution of wealth” a socialist battlecry…