What a Catholic who is a capitalist believes

Capitalism is a economic system. It is not an ideology, not a political system, not a social system, not a religion, by itself, it does not define a culture.

Economic systems are about scarcity. What's perpetually scarce is intelligence, labor, and raw materials. As a Catholic, I believe that these are gifts from God and therefore subject to God's plan for how we use them. That's important because this is an area in which we are not autonomous from God. What is scarce will always engage moral questions of who owns it, who gets to use or consume it?

In Capitalism ownership of the means of production is held privately. The owners of capital make decisions on supply, demand, and allocation in free markets. That's the outline definition.

I am a capitalist who thinks that addressing poverty is important to giving capitalism a moral foundation. This puts in me in opposition to Ayn Rand and her followers who minimized if not deprecated charity as a virtue.

If I were to look at what the critical question today worth talking about is whether the poor have a claim to the wealth of others by the fact they don't have it. Is wealth inequality in itself contrary to God's justice? My own opinion is that poverty entails suffering from deprivation: not enough food, not enough shelter, not enough health care - the critical needs for life are not being met among people without an ability to earn it in a capitalist economy.

Experimental Economics and donations

I try to follow what goes on in experimental economics although I am not an economist. So I had some ideas which are related to voluntary alms vs. taxes which become transfers from one income group to another (a sort of involuntary alms).

If there were million dollars it was promised to be paid it out as follows: You can only participate once. You can choose (1) to take $10 for yourself or (2) take $5 for yourself and $10 will be donated to relief in Haiti. To modify it a little bit, imagine that this was done in a situation where you would be observed by people in your community, or that your name would be associated with your choice on the Internet.

Another. Let's say that there's a video feed established between the U.S. Would you contribute more if there was a earthquake victim with a bottle of water and food rations thanking you by name? What part does personal visible gratitude have in alms-giving?

Cheers for the home team: New York Post


Judge blasts bad bank, erases 525G debt: New York Post


Judge Blasts Bank's Foreclosure Conduct and Cancels Mortgage: law.com

Hero of the day: Jeffrey Spinner: Reuters

Happy Thanksgiving: Judge Erases Long Island Family’s Mortgage

1. The judge just increased the risk and therefore the costs borrowing for everyone.
2. Rather than just own the house free and clear and raise the cash for "health care" and "the online business" from actual earnings -- they gambled -- it looks to me like a $250,000 "cash-out" -- the excess of loan principal over the amount required to own the house free and clear.

Regardless of the value of the house increasing or decreasing, they should have anticipated what the monthly payments would be and have earnings to cover it, or sell the house on their own terms and move to a rental.

My problems with the story:

1. "...10.375 percent, which soared to 12.375..." Soared? Was that meant in a sarcastic sense?
2. They have owned and occupied the house for 15 years and have zero (or negative) equity in it? Tell me if that is due to "bank bullying".

Cash for Clunkers

Since this is a program for people to choose destroy what is still a useful car, years ahead of its time. I wonder if this is soften us for the destruction of human life when the government wants to reduce the burden they impose on the "economy".

See also: Just a reminder: Cash for Clunkers requires destroying perfectly usable car: Hot Air Blog

Oops: Microsoft Asks Some Laid Off Workers To Send Back Part Of Their Severance: techcrunch.com

This is PR problem for Microsoft and perhaps a disaster if the MSM want to run with it. Reputation counts for a lot here.