Socialism, Free Enterprise, and the Common Good: Father Sirico at Hillsdale College

by Rick Lowe (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute gave an eloquent address (as usual) at Hillsdale College a couple years back, and it's worth reading again.

"In chapter 21 of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus proposes a moral dilemma in the form of a parable: A man asks his two sons to go to work for him in his vineyard. The first son declines, but later ends up going. The second son tells his father he will go, but never does. “Who,” Jesus asks, “did the will of his father?” Although I am loath to argue that Jesus’s point in this parable was an economic one, we may nonetheless derive from it a moral lesson with which to evaluate economic systems in terms of achieving the common good."

"Modern history presents us with two divergent models of economic arrangement: socialism and capitalism. One of these appears preoccupied with the common good and social betterment, the other with profits and production. But let us keep the parable in mind as we take a brief tour of economic history." [More...]

There's no doubt in my mind that economic freedom or capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than any other system conceived to date.