Thursday, March 05, 2009

Any system built on Greed will fail...

I look forward to this new encyclical with each passing word of its coming.
Morals are an important issue that should be addressed.

The question will be, do most Catholics believe that Capitalism is based on greed?
I know there are economic professors who teach that greed is good, but as Catholics, we recognize greed as one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Are professors and Catholics discussing two different types of greed?
Or can Catholics not be Capitalists?

2 comments:

Kevin said...

Define Fail...
This?
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/SZTiuLUPKeI/AAAAAAAAJPo/21O7022mf2w/s1600-h/middleclass.gif

or this?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/Sa6U-pCOtTI/AAAAAAAAJXA/Es-c9NHy_nc/s1600-h/time.bmp

this?
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/fredgraph?s[1][id]=GDPC96

There's a video of Tyler Cohen talking about greed but I can't find it right now. He says there's a difference between walking over somebody (lying cheating stealing) greed and self interest where you're mainly concerned about yourself and family.

ruthie-o said...

I think we need to find another word for the "greed" talked about by economists as the motivator for capitalism. Certainly there is a motivator common among all humans, but it is not the vice of greed. Economists simply redefined the word to meet their requirements. By this new definition, Mother Teresa became the greediest woman in the world, because she was insatiable in terms of helping people and giving of herself.
Catholics can certainly be capitalists, because greed the vice is not what motivates humans, it is "greed" as defined by economics that motivates us. I propose finding a better word, or term to define this.