Forum: Globalization
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Globalization
Our economic activity is the principal activity for most Americans. One’s economic role, what one does and the compensation one realizes from it, are key determinants for the whole of the individual’s and the family’s life. Economic activity determines the individual’s and the family’s role in society and the financial standard of living.
Americans live in a capitalistic, free enterprise economic world. This is a world that is largely financially independent, and largely controlled by political factors. The relationship between the two is of critical importance and is subject to frequent change. Today, control of the financial world is left almost entirely to the forces of the market place. Only a few years ago, even in the United States, this was not the case. Then, economic life was largely regulated by political institutions.
The result is a much greater degree of free trade across political borders, and, in the United States, among other things, the rapid diminution of the middle class and the emergence of a two-tiered society, that of the well-to-do and that of the poor.
Some observers see this as a temporary situation. Others believe it is more of a long-lasting situation. The result is that some believe market forces should be allowed free reign, and others believe they must be subjected to a much greater degree of social control, although there is no agreement as to what those controls should be.
The Catholic Church has been most interested in economic life in moderntimes. It has refused to leave the public arena in these areas and confine itself to the sphere of private morality, insisting that morality is more and more a public matter and not simply a private one. Recent popes and conferences of bishops have addressed economic matters with frequency and detailed suggestions.
For example, in recent years popes and conferences of Catholic bishops have endorsed the capitalistic, free market economy. They have, at the same time, sided strongly with advocates of social controls over that economy, that give it a morally human direction, without stifling it. That is a task that is most difficult, and some think impossible.
The Catholic Church’s social teaching has never been widely endorsed or followed by most of its lay members. Today, when the teaching authority of the official Church is more questioned than ever, even very loyal Catholics are more skeptical than ever. The official teaching of the Church has been demonstrated to be wrong on a number of occasions – examples are usury, slavery, religious liberty, and divorce.
Where does that leave the official teaching authority of the Church today? What is the most proper response of loyal Catholics to that official teaching authority?
And, what are your views about globalization? Is it a good phenomenon -- do the good results outweigh the bad? Should there be social controls on its development, or not? If so, what should be their nature?
