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"Power to the People"
Can Only Mean Property to the People John
C. Médaille "We have seen that it is unacceptable
to say that the defeat of ‘Real Socialism’ leaves capitalism as the only
model of economic organization." Centesimus Annus, 35.4 Power naturally and necessarily follows
property." Daniel Webster, address to
the Massachusetts Convention, 1820 What are our economic options?
Must we have either capitalism or socialism? Socialism's obvious failures
(Russia) and putative successes (China) have been brutally oppressive, while
capitalism's dubious results (a consumerist culture, ubiquitous advertising,
wage-slavery, corporate conglomeration, practical monopoly) conform us daily
in America. Are these the only alternatives? On this subject the Catholic
Church has great wisdom to offer. For more than a century the popes have shown
themselves to be astute analysts of socialism and capitalism, and John Paul
II has brought the paper critique to an unprecedented pitch of incisiveness. Both
systems, says the Pope, are "in need of radical correction,…This is one
of the reasons why the Church's social doctrine adopts a critical attitude
towards both liberal capitalism and Marxist collectivism." (Sollicitudo
Rei Socialis 21, hereinafter SRS). A radical correction means, of
course, correction at the root. And John Paul in his encyclicals on economics
and society has exposed the root error of both socialism and capitalism. Both
are fundamentally materialist. Thus both fail to recognize man's full nature.
Though different in practice, capitalism and socialism share underlying
philosophical assumptions that operate to reduce man to a cog of an economic
system. The tend to absolutize economic life. In so doing they marginalize
man's spiritual and religious dimension either by openly persecuting it, (as
socialism does) or by treating it as mere private fantasy deserving of no
place in the public sphere (as capitalism does). Thus they not only thwart
man's spiritual freedom but also hamper his economic initiative and his
achievement of his true economic vocation. Since the American system is not
socialist but capitalist, this article focuses on the Catholic argument
against capitalism, primarily as made in the encyclicals of Leo XIII, Pius
XI, and John Paul II. It then goes on to outline a corrective called
Distributivism, a response first formulated by G. K. Chesterton and Hillaire
Belloc, which is based on the realistic premise that power follows property. The Papal Critique of
Capitalism Economism For John Paul, the faults of both
systems are subsumed under the error of "economism." (See Laborem
Exercens 13, hereinafter LE) The economistic view, whether from socialists or
capitalists, involves the divorce of the moral and ethical realms from the
economic. For without moral guidance, economics oppresses man. (SRS 28)
Indeed, that is precisely what has happened, as the "Liberal
socio-political system which in accordance with its ‘economistic’ premises,
strengthened and safeguarded economic initiative by the possessors of capital
alone," while maintaining that "human work is solely an instrument
of production, and that capital is the basis, efficient factor and purpose of
production."(LE 34) It is if the hammer was all and the man who wields
it nothing, a clear confusion in the right order of things, of which the Pope
says, "Precisely this reversal of order, whatever the program or name
under which it occurs, should rightly be called ‘capitalism’…" (LE 30)
This reversal has at its root materialism. (LE 60) The result of this subordination
is the divorce of capital and labor, which from the economistic perspective
became mere "impersonal forces" and "production factors."
(LE 60) Finally, with the worker reduced to a commodity and merely the
product of blind economic laws, the spiritual realm is reduced to the
irrelevant and materialism progresses to its "dialectical" phase.
(LE 61) This "practical" materialism leads to the theoretical
materialism of the Liberals and the dialectical materialism of the
socialists, a state of affairs which leads inevitably to the
depersonalization of society: "The
individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the
State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though he exists only as a
producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of state
administration." (Centesimus Annus 49.3, hereinafter CA) Work as a "Commodity" With man stripped of his
religious nature and any institutional protection, Capitalists "claimed
all the products and profits, and left to the laborer the barest minimum
necessary to repair his strength, … For by an inexorable economic law, it was
held, all accumulation of riches must fall to the share of the wealthy…"
(Quadragesimo Anno 54, Hereinafter QA) Rerum Novarum had noted that
"it gradually came about that the present age handed over the workers,
each alone and defenseless, to the inhumanity of employers and the unbridled
greed of competitors. " (RN 6) Thus labor has became "a commodity
to be freely bought and sold on the market, its price determined by the law
of supply and demand". (CA 6) Class Struggle This sundering of capital and
labor resulted in the "class struggle." Rerum Novarum
condemns those abuses of the working class resulting from the greed and
avarice of the employers, but Leo is concerned that they not be seduced by
the violence inherent in the socialist notion of class struggle. In Quadragesimo
Anno, Pope Pius is hopeful that class warfare "when it abstains from
enmities and mutual hatred" will be converted into an honest discussion
of differences. (QA 114) However, in Centesimus Annus the class
struggle is not only acknowledged as a right but is given a specific goal,
namely, that it must be a struggle against "the absolute predominance of
capital, the possession of the means of production and of the land, in
contrast to the free and personal nature of human work." Further, the
object of the struggle cannot be "the socialist system, which in fact
turns out to be state capitalism, but rather a society of free work and
participation." (CA 35.2, see also CA 14.1) Free Competition and Individualism Condemned as well is that
capitalism that "which refuses even to consider these problems, in the a
priori belief that any attempt to solve them is doomed to failure, and which
blindly entrusts their solution to the free development of market
forces." (CA 42.2) Rerum Novarum did not directly treat the
question of the "free market," but clearly exempted wages from its
domination. Quadragesimo Anno noted that "the proper ordering of
economic affairs cannot be left to free competition alone. From this source
have proceeded in the past all the errors of the ‘Individualistic’
school." (QA 88) Pope Pius also notes the tendency for the free market
to be succeeded by "economic domination," because those who survive
tend to be the most ruthless, "who pay least heed to conscience."
(QA 107) John Paul’s analysis acknowledges that the market "is the most
efficient instrument for utilizing resources," but he goes on to note
that "this is true only for those needs which are ‘solvent’, insofar as
they are endowed with purchasing power, and for those resources that are
‘marketable,’ insofar as they are capable of obtaining a satisfactory
price." (CA 34.1) The Rights (and Wrongs) of Property Key to the critique of economic
systems is the Church’s position on property, a position rejected by both Socialism
and Liberal Capitalism. Despite the depth of the dispute between these two
views, they are actually a lot closer to each other than either is to the
Church, for both view property as an absolute, Liberalism as an absolute and
dogmatic good, and Socialism, with equal fervor, as an absolute evil. But the
Church’s position is that private ownership, while necessary and even a
"sacred" right, (RN 65) is subordinate to the principle of the
Universal Destination of Goods. This principle holds that while earth is
apportioned among private owners, these owners are merely the stewards of
Providence "with the task of making [property] fruitful and
communicating its benefits to others…:" This principle transcends the
capitalist-socialist dichotomy by uniting the use and ownership of property.
In Quadragesimo Anno, Pope Pius noted to the twin evils to be avoided:
the "individualism" which denies the social aspect of ownership and
the "collectivism" which denies the private aspect. "To
disregard these dangers would be to rush headlong into the quicksands of
modernism." (QA 46) In Laborem Exercens Pope John Paul condemns
that "ridged capitalism" which "defends the exclusive right to
private ownership of the means of production as an untouchable ‘dogma’ of
economic life." (LE 66) However, neither Leo nor Pius are
willing to place the ownership of property into hazard on the basis of
its improper use. While Pope Pius does assign the state the duty of defining
in detail the licit use of property for the common good, it is still
forbidden to seize property on account of its misuse. (QA 47, 48) However, in
Centesimus Annus the Pope seems to make ownership itself dependent
upon right use. "[Ownership]
becomes illegitimate, however, when it is not utilized or when it serves to
impede the work of others, in an effort to gain a profit which is not the
result of the overall expansion of work and the wealth of society, but rather
is the result of curbing them or of illicit exploitation, speculation or the
breaking of solidarity among working people. Ownership of this kind has no
justification, and represents an abuse in the sight of God and
humanity." (CA 43.3) One must assume that an
"abuse" in the sight of humanity could be addressed in human
courts. This would represent a radical departure from previous encyclicals. The Just Distribution of Property The Church’s position
"radically diverges from the program of collectivism as proclaimed by
Marxism," and just as radically "differs from the program of
capitalism practiced by liberalism and the political systems inspired by
it." (LE 64) The Church’s view avoids the twin evils of collectivism,
which denies the private character of property, and of individualism, which
denies the common good. (QA 46) The Church’s critique of property, however,
goes much deeper than the issue of ownership. The Church is guided by the
principle of the Common Destination of Goods, a principle which impels the
Church to comment on the unjust distribution of property. The poor
distribution is condemned as a "grave evil," (QA 58) nor are we
permitted to blame this poor distribution on either "the fault of the
needy people, and even less through a sort of inevitability dependent on
natural conditions or circumstances as a whole." (SRS 9.6) Further, this
poor distribution inevitably leads to violence since "Peoples excluded
from the fair distribution of the goods … could ask themselves: why not
respond with violence to those who first treat us with violence?" (SRS
10.2). Summary The above summary is brief
indeed; many other abuses are mentioned: the control of credit, the
oppression of the third world, monopoly power, consumerism, the treatment of
women and mothers, etc. But even in its brevity, this summary should invite
us as faithful children of Holy Mother Church to cast the same jaundiced eye
on the current economic systems and to examine the outlines of the Church’s
moral dissent. These systems (capitalism or socialism) begin with a practical
materialism which reverses the order of things by elevating things over man.
Man’s labor is thereby reduced to mere commodity, to be bought at the lowest
rates. Property is absolutized and with it, economic life as well becomes the
sole focus of man’s being. Mere possession replaces firm purpose;
"having" replaces "being." (SRS 28) The Papal Response to
Capitalism But what the Church supplies is
not an "alternative" system, not a "Third Way." The
Church has no Third Way, mainly because she has no first or second way.
Rather She offers set of guidelines and standards which arise from the moral
order and which must be used to judge any alternative; it is for the laity to
listen to the Word of God, as promulgated by the Church, and to devise ways
to make that Word come alive in the world. Holy Mother the Church is, like
all good mothers since Eve, a bit of a nag; she tells us that our rooms are dirty,
but does not propose to clean them up herself. But also, like good mothers
everywhere, she does not just nag, but offers guidance. This guidance, offered through
Her Social Teaching is extensive, but I will concentrate on just a few
points: The Primacy of Labor over Capital, the Just Wage, the Just
Distribution of Property, and Subsidiarity. But before any reform of systems
can be attempted, there must be at the same time a reform of hearts, for the
structures of sin must be met both on the structural level and on the level
of the human heart, wherein we find the origin of sin. For above all other
things, the Church seeks to replace the "economism" noted by John
Paul with things of real value. But, "For this to happen, it is not
enough to draw on the surplus goods which in fact our world abundantly
produces; it requires above all a change of lifestyles, of models of
production and consumption, and of the established structures of power which
today govern societies" (CA 58.1). As faithful members of the laity, it
is our duty to undergo this change of lifestyle, our duty to work out new
models of production and establish the new structures of power. The Primacy of Labor Over Capital The first principle is be
established is, contrary to the economists, the primacy of labor over
capital. Where capitalism favors capital as the efficient cause of wealth and
labor the merely instrumental cause, the Church firmly asserts the reverse.
This idea grows throughout the social encyclicals and reaches its fullest expression
in John Paul. In Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII asserts "It is only by
the labor of workingmen that states grow rich." (RN 27) Leo is
attempting to re-establish the proper symmetry between capital and labor,
noting that while the one could not do without the other, the decisive factor
is labor. "…It is incontestable that the wealth of nations originates
from no other source than from the labor of workers." (RN 51) This
sentiment is repeated in by Pope Pius, "Is it not indeed apparent that
the huge possessions, which constitute human wealth, are begotten by and flow
from the hands of the workingman…?" (QA 53) In John Paul’s work, this
idea is greatly enlarged: Labor is always the "primary efficient
cause" and capital "mere instrument" in the production of wealth.
(LE 52) Finally, this is not merely an
"economic" point, but a spiritual one, since the primacy of labor
represents, in the final analysis, "the primacy of man over
things." (LE 57) Thus this primacy is the refutation of materialism and
economism. From this analysis, John Paul gives us the criteria for judging an
economic system: a system can be just only to the extent that it is in accord
with "the principle of the substantial and real priority of labor, of
the subjectivity of human labor and its effective participation in the whole
production process, independent of the nature of the services provided by the
worker." (LE 58) The Just Wage But if labor is primary, what is
this to mean in actual practice? How are we to use the criteria given above?
What, in other words, will be the mark of a system that "overcomes the
opposition between labor and capital"? (LE 58) The answer is the Just
Wage, which is "the key problem of social ethics" and the sole
basis for resolving the relationship between the employer and the workers.
(LE 88) But how are we to determine what constitutes a "just wage"?
First and foremost, we should keep in mind that it is not up to the mere free
consent of the parties, a point on which all the encyclicals agree. This
arises from the fact that labor has a social function, namely the support of
families and the distribution of property, functions, which can be met only
on the basis of the just wage. (RN 62, see also CA 8.1) For a wage to be just, two
conditions must be present. The first is that it must be sufficient to
support a family. "The wage shall not be less than enough to support a
worker who is thrifty and upright."(RN 63) "Every effort must
therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage sufficient to meet
adequately ordinary domestic needs." (QA 71, see also CA 8.1) Moreover,
if this is not feasible, "social justice demands that reforms be
introduced without delay which will guarantee every adult workingman just
such a wage." (QA 71) This wage must also allow support of the family
without requiring mothers to work outside the home. (LE 90) However, the "family
wage" is not in itself sufficient to determine the just wage, for
another factor must be considered: the just distribution of property. That
is, the wage is also the means for ensuring the workingman can come into
capital of his own. (RN 65) This is the heart of Papal policy: the just wage
used to enable just distribution of property. "This programme cannot,
however, be realized unless the propertyless wage-earner be placed in such
circumstances that by skill and thrift he can acquire a certain moderate
ownership." (QA 63) Finally, it should be noted that
the right to a just wage is more than a mere pious wish, but a requirement of
objective morality, a requirement that cannot be subordinated to the
"criterion of maximum profit," but which "must constitute the
adequate and fundamental criterion for shaping the whole economy." (LE
80) The Just Distribution of Property As we have seen, one requirement
of the just wage is that it permits a thrifty worker to acquire capital of
his own. Throughout the encyclicals, the acquisition of property by the
working class is the key to overcoming the divisions within society. Once
again, it is in the work of John Paul that this idea is carried to it
fullest, even to the extent of calling for the socialization of property. This just distribution appears in
Rerum Novarum as the practical basis for peace between the classes.
(RN 66) In Quadragesimo Anno, in a section provocatively entitled
"Proletarian condition to be overcome by letting wage-earners attain to
property," the Pope says "Every effort, therefore, must be made
that at least in future a just share only of the fruits of production be
permitted to accumulate in the hands of the wealthy, and that an ample
sufficiency be supplied to the workingmen." (QA 61) These ideas find their most
complex expression in Laborem Exercens. After attacking the capitalist
view that treats private property as an "untouchable dogma," the
Pope insists that the concept of ownership "should undergo a
constructive revision both in theory and in practice." (LE 66) What is
this constructive revision? It is nothing less than the
"socialization" of capital! (LE 65) In the Pope’s view, the only
legitimate title to private goods "is that they should serve labor and
thus by serving labor that they should make possible the achievement of the
first principle of this order, namely the universal destination of goods and
the right to common use of them." (LE 66) The encyclical expands on this
idea: "In
the light of the above, the many proposals put forward by experts in Catholic
social teaching and by the highest Magisterium of the church take on special
significance: proposals for joint ownership of the means of work, sharing by
the workers in the management and-or profits of businesses, so-called
shareholding by labor, etc." (LE 67) Socialization of property is not
to be confused with "collectivization," which would merely transfer
power from the owners to a group of managers, (LE 68) rather, we can speak of
socializing [of capital] only when "on the basis of his work each person
is fully entitled to consider himself a part owner of the great workbench at
which he is working with everyone else." (LE 69) We should at this moment pause to
catch our breath, for what John Paul has done is indeed breathtaking. Whereas
the strategy proposed by Leo and Pius is a gradual one, the current pope
replaces it with a radical one. Whereas in the previous works a just wage and
the encouragement of thrift would lead to a gradual acquisition of property
and so make the classes "neighbors to each other," in this Pope the
workers are to be included in the ownership of the workbench simply by virtue
of being workers. Further, while the term socialization certainly doesn’t
mean socialism (quite the opposite!) it is nonetheless a bold and provocative
term for the Pope to use. As far as I can tell, it is without precedent in
the Social Teachings; it does, however accord well with John Paul’s
philosophy which places man at the center of work. In Centesimus Annus
he identifies the human person, together with the earth itself, as the
"principle resource" in creating wealth. (CA 32.2) It also accords
well with the philosophy of work developed in Laborem Exercens, which
as has been noted, makes the worker the primary and efficient cause of
wealth. Subsidiarity But if the worker is himself the
cause of wealth and should therefore be associated with ownership of the
means of production, how should this be accomplished? Once again, Laborem
Exercens calls upon the principle of subsidiarity: "By
producing a wide range of intermediate bodies with economic, social and
cultural purposes; they would be bodies enjoying real autonomy with regard to
the public powers, pursuing their specific aims in honest collaboration with
each other and in subordination to the demands of the common good." (LE
69) These "intermediary
bodies" constitute the essence and program of "subsidiarity,"
the notion of a large number of institutions, public and private, that
interpose between the individual and the state or the major corporation. In
this, John Paul follows the ideas of his predecessors, who all insist on
subsidiarity. In all of the encyclicals, the most important subsidiary body
(from an economic standpoint, and aside from a wider diffusion of property
itself) is the union. Rerum Novarum mentions associations for mutual
aid, agencies to care for the worker and for his family in the event of accident,
sickness or death, etc., but among all these "association of workers
occupy first place". (RN 68, 69) In Quadragesimo Anno, the
"syndicate" or binding union ("union shop" in current
parlance) becomes the key organization for achieving the social aims of the
worker and society at large. (QA 92) In Centesimus Annus the primary
responsibility for overseeing human rights and "welfare" belongs
first to subsidiary organizations, and only partially to the state, (CA
48.2,4,5) and the key organization is the Union. John Paul strongly affirms
the right to form labor unions (LE 94), which have their root in medieval
guilds, but which in the recent past grow from the struggle of workers to
protect their rights. (LE 95) The unions are "a mouthpiece for the struggle
for social justice, for the just rights of working people." (LE 96) In Quadragesimo
Anno Pope Pius hoped that syndicates would make strikes unnecessary, but
for John Paul the right to strike is clearly legitimate. (LE 100) Subsidiarity has many more implications,
which we can only briefly touch on here. It presumes the decentralization of
power and is itself the guarantor of that decentralization. In this regard,
it is also the guarantor of democracy, for whatever form the regime might
take, be it monarchial, aristocratic, or democratic, the institutions of the
people stand as bulwark against the abuse of office and the concentration of
power. Summary This brief analysis should allow
us to glimpse the outlines of Papal strategy. In answer to the economistic
elevation of things over people and capital over labor, it advances the
personalist principle and the primacy of labor. With capital removed from its
pre-eminent place, the Church calls for a wider distribution of property and
hence a wider diffusion of power among the people. How is this diffusion to
take place? Through the just wage, which arbitrates relations between capital
and labor which itself is an objective right. How is this wage to be
achieved? The Church lays stress not so much on governmental action, but on
the action of subsidiary organizations, the primary one of which (aside from
the distribution of ownership itself) is the union, which will be in a
position to negotiate just wages with a more diverse group of owners. The Distributivist
Response While the Church’s teachings are
not a "program" or a platform, this is not to suggest that they are
either "unrealistic" or "impractical;" on the contrary,
one is impressed with their realism and forthrightness. But it is the role of
the laity to make the Church’s teaching come alive in the real world, to
prudently examine the situation in which we find ourselves and to devise
plans and strategies to implement the teachings. Distributivism originates
mainly as a lay response to Rerum Novarum, and throughout its history
the teachings of the Roman Pontiffs have served as inspiration Distributivism
bases it response above all on the principle of subsidiarity, both in the
economic and political realms, realms which cannot in practice be entirely
separate. Economic Subsidiarity "Power follows
property." To put
the proposition succinctly, Distributivists believe that the best way to
spread the benefits of freedom and economic initiative is through small
property. Distributivists fear, above all else, the concentration of power
that is the inevitable consequence of the concentration of wealth; in fact if
Daniel Webster can be believed, the two are the same thing. . On the economic
order, the just distribution of property is itself the major instrument of
subsidiarity. With no one to control the market, free competition will
thrive, if Adam Smith can be believed, and the economic talent and initiative
of the people will be released. It is important at this point to clarify what
is meant by a "free market." Too often, this term is taken to mean
a market "free of unwanted government interference." I say
"unwanted," because there is a great deal of interference that
established capitalists welcome: subsidies, protection from liability laws
and lawsuits, regulations that raise the entry cost to potential competitors,
etc. However, it is not merely governments that make markets un-free, but
monopolists and oligarchies that can control them. I take it that a market is
free if no buyer or seller can control the market. And the sign of this
freedom is the diversity of the market; if there are no or few choices, we
must assume a controlled market, a market that lacks freedom. Distributivism
works against market domination not just on the governmental level, but on
the real world level. The economic diversity implied by many small owners in
any given business is the only real antidote to the economic domination of
which Pius XI warned us. Political Subsidiarity We in America consider ourselves
a democracy because we have the forms of democracy – elections,
legislatures, political parties, etc. However, the reality of
democracy can only be judged by the choices actually given to the people and
by how closely those choices coincide with the traditions, customs, mores,
and will of the people. Throughout the Roman Empire, elections were held,
elections that were as bitterly contested, as broadly debated, and as well
financed as any of ours, yet no one will contend that the Empire was a
democracy. Throughout the communist period, all of the so-called Democratic
Socialist Republics held elections, as they still do in China; but this
formal democracy hardly masks the reality that no real choices are involved. I think the "choices"
represented in American Democracy are similarly hollow. The analysis offered
by Mary Ann Glendon is here useful: "It
does not seem an exaggeration to say that we currently have a party of big
business playing lip service to traditional moral values, and a party of big
government paying lip service to the needs of working people and the poor.
Even that distinction is collapsing as Democratic Party leaders cozy up to
big business, and Republicans discover the joys of big government." If the "differences"
are no more then those expressed by the campaigns of Bob Dole and Bill
Clinton, there is legitimate doubt about the reality of Democracy in America.
How does this situation come about? I would argue that without subsidiarity,
and particularly subsidiarity in the economic realm, real Democracy is
impossible. Power will follow the money, and if the wealth is concentrated,
power will be likewise. Consider, the average congressional campaign costs
about $650,000 per candidate. The winner holds office for 730 days. Thus each
and every day in office he must raise $867, Sundays, Christmases, and Easters
included and no vacations allowed. That’s $6,000 every week, over $25,000
every month. Note that all this is for an office that amounts to 1/435th
of ½ of 1/3rd of one of the many levels of government that
comprise the American Regime. With concentration of economic power, there are
limited sources for such large amounts of cash and all candidates must work
the same sources. Is it surprising that, by and large, they tend to say the
same things? Political subsidiarity will be the natural outcome of economic
subsidiarity. Further, without economic subsidiarity, politics can never be
more than a sham for those too small to have their own powerful lobbies. Implementing Economic Subsidiarity In discussing the implementation
of economic subsidiarity, two things need to be made clear: the first is that
it is not utopian, and the second is that it must involve a revival of the
sentiment for property. Concerning the first question, Distributivism is not
a cure for poverty, ignorance, or disease; a perfect division is not sought,
young men will still get acne and old ones gout; fools will gamble away their
fortunes, and the poor will be with us, as always. What is sought is
to restore the institution of property so that it becomes a real
distinguishing mark of our society, to the extent that real power, economic,
social, and political, is shifted to the lowest possible level. Concerning the second question,
we find a real bar to Distributivism. Mary Ann Glendon notes the problem: "Most
Americans are highly dependent on big business and government: about a fifth
of the labor force are public employees; a third work for the central core of
large corporations (many under government contract or subsidy); the pensions
of retirees are invested in the same corporations; recipients of governmental
largesse include not only welfare clients, but a substantial fraction of the
middle class (through government-insured loans, Medicare, and retirement
income funded with general tax revenues). Most of these dependents have
children or others who are in turn dependent on them." In such a situation,
"reform" as such is impossible without a reform of manners and
morals. To some extent, that is happening, as people discover that the corporate
world treats all workers as temporary, moveable, and replaceable. People are
learning to take more responsibility for their own economic well-being.
Nonetheless, we are still a long way off from reviving the sentiment for
property. That problem aside, let us look
at just a few ways that in which property can be revived. I am not here
offering a complete program, but merely pointing to a few things that may be
done in order to demonstrate the kind of thinking that will be necessary to
restore any meaningful subsidiarity. A more complete discussion can be found
in Hillarie Belloc’s The Restoration of Property or G. K. Chesterton’s
The Outline of Sanity. But what is being attempted is nothing less
than a complete shift of power, both political and economic, for if we will
not shift the latter, we cannot shift the former. Differential Taxation Tax rates for employee-owned
business could be lowered relative to corporations. This would recognize the
"social" value of employee-owned businesses and provide a real
advantage in the marketplace. Differential Regulation No one would deny the need to
regulate the workplace for such things as employee safety. Yet it seems that
the real experts on this subject are the employees themselves. Government
regulation often involves matters of no importance while overlooking areas of
real danger, are expensive to implement, and are often poorly enforced. I
would suggest that in companies where employees have real rule making
authority, either because they own the company or because they have a strong
union, that rule making be left to employees. This would give an advantage to
the employee owned company and give other companies an incentive to have a
union. Encouraging Cooperative Ownership and
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) Cooperatives allow holders of
small capital to gather for larger projects and enterprises. In many states,
there is no legal form under which they can exist. ESOPs allow for worker
control of corporations by the purchase and/or distribution of company stock
to the workers. Reduce Property Tax Burden At one time property presupposed
income, and the property tax was a form of income tax. For most people, this
is no longer true. Nonetheless, many governmental expenses that have nothing
to do with property are funded by the property tax. In Texas, this tax is a
substitute for a state income tax, is highly regressive, and supports
functions that have nothing to do with property, such as schools, and junior
colleges. Property should be properly taxed for those services it receives,
such as streets, police and fire, etc. but other services should find other
sources. Limiting Zoning Laws, Licensing
Requirements, etc. The economic value of one’s home
is severely limited by zoning laws. Often these laws are trivial and
overbearing. Certainly, no one wants a lead smelter or major factory in their
back yards, but zoning, licensing, and other restrictions often involve
"overkill". This is especially true for the poor, for whom a home
may be the only economic asset. Breaking the Educational Monopoly The largest monopoly in this
country is education. Vouchers, charter schools, freedom to choose one’s
district, and home schooling would help break this monopoly and restore
control and responsibility for education to parents. Breaking the Partisan Political
Monopoly Effective entry to the political
system is controlled by the two political parties, which in itself is an
extra-constitutional arrangement. Nonetheless, these parties are encoded in
law by protections that make third parties difficult or impossible. They are
also the recipients of vast public subsidies. The subsidies should be ended,
and the requirements for getting on the ballot should be lightened so that
politics may encompass as wide a range of views as is practical. Summary Distributivism is based on the
realistic and intuitively grasped notion that power follows property,
combined with a genuine love of freedom and a desire to spread the benefits
of freedom and economic initiative as widely as possible. It is a real
response to the Pope’s call for "a change of lifestyles, of models of
production and consumption, and of the established structures of power which
today govern societies." (CA 58.1) As such, it deserves the serious and
prayerful consideration of faithful Catholics everywhere. |