With Pope Francis’ comments concerning capitalism causing concern in conservative circles it’s a good time to explain Catholic economic doctrine which is often termed “distributism.”
Despite the name, it is not about taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor.
The policy actually declares property ownership to be a fundamental right and that the means of productions should be spread as widely a possible so that they are not centralized under state control which would lead to soul-destroying tyranny.
The doctrine says that socialism is bad and that capitalism ends up concentrating economic power eventually capturing the state leading to a form of socialism.
It’s pretty hard to argue that point.
It looks like Francis is a DIY Tea-Party kind of guy.
Crisis Magazine has a good article on the subject here.
Distributism Catholic Economics
