Marco, Marco, Marco. Marco. Marco, I just ran across a piece you wrote for First Things where you invoked the social teaching of the Church and noted that central to it is human dignity — in the case of employment, dignified work. I was kind of tracking with you when you noted that the American working class has gotten the short end of the stick for the last 40 years and that the American industrial base has been hollowed out by greedy multinational corporations and Wall Street locust capitalists.
But Marco. Please. Especially if you are going to put an article on First Things, you might consider that some of the people reading your article would have also read Rerum Novarum rather than just cherry pick those parts of a document that at the time was written as a response to the Communist Manifesto. (You might yourself be interested to know that Rerum Novarum specifically supports a living minimum wage and labor unions and specifically condemns wealth inequality and exploitation of workers. And that the minimum wage should be sufficient that a single wage earner holding a single job could support an entire household in dignity.)
And Marco. What were you trying to do with that petitio principii you used, changing “dignified work” to “dignified work through investment”? Nice try, but that’s not what dignified work is about and the word “investment” does not appear in Rerum Novarum. I think you are trying to justify the same old investor-first trickle-down economic policies as a solution to problems that were caused by those very same policies. Sneaky, sneaky, Marco. But it’s not nice to fool with the social teaching of the Church.
I’ll tell you what. Let’s fast forward 100 years and look at a more modern document, one written in and for our time and place: Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy by the US Council of Catholic Bishops. This is an extensive and comprehensive document, Marco, but I highly encourage you to read it and internalize it. And I hope you are on board with its recommendations. Like you, it condemns economic inequality — for them it was the inequality present in the US in 1986 — and we know that inequality has gotten much worse in the 30+ years since. But, Marco, unlike you, the bishops rightly recognize the role of government in providing economic justice — and they herald the Great Society programs as examples of how the government should address inequality:
Although the task of alleviating poverty is complex and demanding, we should be encouraged by examples of our nation's past successes in this area. Our history shows that we can reduce poverty. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the official poverty rate was cut in half, due not only to a healthy economy, but also to public policy decisions that improved the nation's income transfer programs. It is estimated, for example, that in the late 1970s federal benefit programs were lifting out of poverty about 70 percent of those who would have otherwise been poor.
See that?
So Marco, here is the deal. If you are going to try to claim some kind of legitimacy for your agenda by invoking the social teaching of the Church, I strongly suggest you do it honestly. To give you some quick talking points, here is a quick summary of some of the topics covered in the Pastoral Letter. I hope we can count on your endorsement of its recommendations.
In general
Government has a moral function: protecting human rights and securing basic justice for all members of the commonwealth. Society as a whole and in all its diversity is responsible for building up the common good. But it is government's role to guarantee the minimum conditions that make this rich social activity possible, namely, human rights and justice.
Rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure
[Government should guarantee] the provision and maintenance of the economy's infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, harbors, public means of communication, and transport.
Real tax reform
A system of taxation based on assessment according to ability to pay is a prime necessity for the fulfillment of these social obligations.
Protecting the most vulnerable Americans
It is the responsibility of all citizens, acting through their government, to assist and empower the poor, the disadvantaged, the handicapped, and the unemployed.
Health care (and other benefits) as a right for all
The dignity of workers also requires adequate health care, security for old age or disability, unemployment compensation, healthful working conditions, weekly rest, periodic holidays for recreation and leisure, and reasonable security against arbitrary dismissal.
Taking on wall street
The concentration of privilege that exists today results far more from institutional relationships that distribute power and wealth inequitably than from differences in talent or lack of desire to work. These institutional patterns must be examined and revised if we are to meet the demands of basic justice.
Trade policies that benefit American workers
[Government] should regulate trade and commerce in the interest of fairness.
Pay equity for women workers
Work with adequate pay for all who seek it is the primary means for achieving basic justice in our society. Discrimination in job opportunities or income levels on the basis of race, sex, or other arbitrary standards can never be justified.
Raising the minimum wage
Basic justice calls for the establishment of a floor of material well-being on which all can stand. This is a duty of the whole of society and it creates particular obligations for those with greater resources.
Growing the trade union movement
The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions.
Creating worker co ops
Labor unions themselves are challenged by the present economic environment to seek new ways of doing business. The purpose of unions is not simply to defend the existing wages and prerogatives of the fraction of workers who belong to them, but also to enable workers to make positive and creative contributions to the firm, the community, and the larger society in an organized and cooperative way. Such contributions call for experiments with new directions in the U.S. labor movement.
If these are really the policies you support, Marco, you should seriously consider running for President — that office would be a great place for you to amplify this message and to put these policies into place. But you may want to lay out an election cycle or two. The party that aligns with these policies has an overfull slate of candidates this year. I am sure they will appreciate your support in the meantime though.