I find no fault with Stuart's analysis in this discussion. If someone wishes to use solar panels it is their right to do so. Solar energy has not proven viable up to this point for large scale use but it seems useful for those not intending to move during ones lifetime. It takes most of a lifetime for most solar energy uses to be economically effective. Pulling people out of poverty is something Capitalism does quite well. In fact it is the only system that accomplishes this.

The same can be said of the East Coast of the United States. When the English colonists arrived in the 17th century, they found much of the area already cleared by the Indians, who also practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. Fortunately for our colonial forebears, the Indian population was already in steep decline because of exposure to European diseases (which began even before the establishment of colonies). By the end of the 17th century, more than 90% of the Eastern Woodlands Indian population had died off, leaving ready-to-farm fields up and down the East Coast.

The Eastern United States today has much more forested land than it did when John Smith landed at Jamestown in 1607 or the Pilgrims at Plimoth in 1620. And, thanks to more intensive agriculture, the amount of land under cultivation is also declining, much of which is being allowed to return either to forest or prairie.

By the same token, the heaths and heathers of the Scottish highlands are the result of human activity. When the Romans first began probing north of the Tyne, they encountered what they called "The Great Caledonian Forest"--a dense evergreen woodland that covered most of the country. By the Middle Ages, it was gone--the trees had been cut either for timber or for firewood, forcing the Scots to resort to burning "turf" (i.e., peat). England, likewise, was running out of woodlands by the early 19th century--the first great energy crisis. It was solved by James Watt, whose practical steam engine was used to drive pumps that kept the water out of deep mine shafts, allowing England to transition to coal, and sparking the Industrial Revolution.

Capitalism is NOT good. Capitalism is a WICKED and EVIL man made system which has nothing to do with the Christian faith. It is the invention of Protestants, especially Calvinists, and is antithetical to the Christian message of love for one's neighbor. Max Weber outlined this in his little book "The Protestant Roots of the Capitalist Ethic." It is something you should read.

Capitalism concentrates wealth among a select and rare few people, while making the rest of humanity wage slaves. The Christian way is that of private property ownership in which the man owns that business or farming property that supplies the needs of his family.

Distributism, on the other hand, spreads the wealth around by means of employee/owner businesses, farms, and worker guilds. The most successful of these is the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain. Their annual revenues are approaching $16 billion a year, yet they are a conglomeration of worker owned businesses. It is simply a lie to say that Capitalism is the only way that business can be run and people can make a good living.

Money is not good. Money is NEUTRAL. It depends entirely upon how you use money as to whether it is good or evil. Unfortunately, in Capitalism, greed is encouraged and rewarded. The best example of Capitalism on parade is the recent 2008 meltdown of Wall Street and the banks. A parade of sheer, unchristian greed. Yet I would bet that some of the players in this dishonest enterprise go to church every Sunday.

You do not need Capitalism to lift people out of poverty. What you need is the Gospel. The Gospel in which men are treated as brothers rather than as slaves to be exploited. The history of white Europeans is one of subjugation of the non-white races. South Africa is a perfect example. An example of Calvinist thought. The Calvinists who moved into South Africa knew that they were God's "elect" (what a DESPICABLE DOCTRINE!!!) and therefore, the Africans, who were not elect because they weren't Calvinists (because they are elect, Calvinists are Calvinists. God allows the non-elect to be pagans and die in their sins) were to be treated as enemies of God, meaning that they should be subjugated.

Four popes in the last 100 years have spoken against Capitalism. It is a hideoous system which encourages greed and the suppression of others for the benefit of a few. If you don't believe this, perhaps you should go back and read some American history about the Robber Barons of the last century. And had there not been unions and strikes, we would still be seeing 12 hour workdays, children working in sweatshops, and unsafe working conditions. Robber Barons don't give up their money without a challenge.

I find myself constantly wondering when the Catholics in this country will stop accepting the world's economic standards and begin to desire to run our economy in line with Gospel principles.

Following up Stuart's comment, I was amazed when I visited Ireland that, except in city parks, there appeared to be no trees more than 40 years old, if that.

I never read of the reason, but I guessed it was because of the economically oppressed population need for firewood and lumber, and maybe sheep overgrazing.

We're straying from the the OP a bit. The Church should and does call for not wasting food, resources and talent, as Christ taught and should be heeded. Sometimes the message gets lost in politics; other times it becomes a vehicle for domination by other issues.

How do you propose to enact distributism across the planet? Or even just in the United States?

It would require a form of coercion, would it not?

Create a universal Catholic Monarchy in which all residents are transformed in conscience and fully supportive of Christ's kingdom on earth. Then, Distributism will work. I wish that it could work without that but it cannot. Even in the best of situations St. Peter discovered that it doesn't always work...unless Capitol punishment is readily used.

I find it amazing that the Patriarch of Constantinople and other hierarchs are so concerned about promoting "ascesis" to "save the enviroment" when so many of their faithful all over the world have basically abandoned practicing ANY form of true Christian asceticism to heal their own disordered passions and save their souls!
We live in one of the most evil times in history-abortion-"but I have rights too!", contraception-"that's a sin?", sodomite "marriage"-"but we love eachother",-now I just heard that doctors in an Australian medical journal are trying to justify infanticide; that in the future, it will be accepted-they are advocating it!
All the saints in the Orthodox & Catholic Churches over the past 200 years have been urging-crying out-for penance and repentance in these evil times-and Patriarch Bartholomew wants us to do "ascesis" to save the climate!
St. Silouan always said that if man would come to love the Holy Spirit and have true peace in his heart the world would not have half the problems it does-the good Patriarch should be announcing a strict worldwide Orthodox fast to stop the perversion the nations are falling into, and yet, silence...
God save us from these wolves in sheep's clothing and give us holy pastors again that are concerned with saving souls first!

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-02-014-v
http://www.aoiusa.org/blog/a-patriarch-who-generally-speaking-respects-human-life/

I was actually expecting the next line to read,"Greed is good," and then continue in a Gordon Gekko mode. <GRIN>

Just trying to inject a bit of levity...

That is the great advantage of capitalism--a system which, imperfect as it is, has lifted more of the world's population out of misery and squalor than any other.

The reason is quite simple: Capitalism takes human nature as it is. It does not require men to be saints or angels. It acknowledges the fallen state of man and redeems it. It takes man's desire to accumulate wealth and redeems it by putting it to the general good--not by laying down prescriptions from on high, or using force to require people to act altruistically, but by allowing each person to pursue his own rational interest. The billions upon billions of independent choices made by billions upon billions of ordinary people, every day, without regard for anything but what is best for them, leads to far more efficient allocation of resources and distribution of goods than any system that either pretends men are not what they really are, or which harnesses the coercive power of the state to make them into something they aren't.

I don't know why everyone's always proposing to enact everything across everywhere. Can't everybody just leave everybody else alone?

I propose, modestly and such as I am able, to find out what's best, to do it, and to encourage others through actions and words to do the same.

Capitalism:

Children being sent to work at factories as early as 8 years of age.

Unsafe conditions for the workers. Many deaths.

Women working to suppliment the family income because the husband is not paid a decent working wage.

Coal miners sent into mines to make a nickel a day while the Robber Barons that employ them live in luxury that would have made King Henry VIII green with envy.

Compound interest, which is against the Sacred Scriptures. When I have to pay three times what a house is worth in order to buy it because of compound interest, something is wrong.

Credit cards that put a man in debt forever because of compounded interest.

Greed. Greed. Greed. Jesus said that life is not measured in the abundance of things we owe. Capitalism say that this is EXACTLY what life is about, and then they go out to makde sure, by way of advertizing, that we understand that we are unhappy with our lives unless we buy a new __________________(whatever) every year and are constantly in debt up to our eyeballs.

CEO salaries and incomes that are damning men to hell. Jesus said that it is profoundly difficult for the rich to enter Heaven. Did that somehow change with the advent of the Industrial Revolution? Methinks not, seeing how the Robber Barons treated the serfs they employed at slave wages.

Stuart, it is no doubt that you are completely sold out to the Conservative Cause. I do hope that you will one day realize that Conservatism and Capitalism, just like Socialism and Liberalism, are not Catholic in concept and should be rejected for a more robust practice of our faith.

The Mondragon Cooperative in Spain is a great example of Distributism at work. And I think that once Capitalism dies under the weight of its own rottenness, people will find their way back to the Distributist model if there are leaders in that field who will merely lead. This needs to include our priests. We need to hear more about this from the pulpits of our world.

Not even going to bother with this.

I'll take it.

Ruthenian, if things are so bad under capitalism, how is it that far more people have far more money then before the rise of capitalism? In fact, how is it that there are far more people now than then, and they live far longer?

LOL. No, that was the socialist tinkering of Freddie Mae and Freddie Mack. Given the numbers studies on church attendance of those leaning Left, I doubt that most of the players in that dishonest enterprise go to church ever.