For the Triumph of the Immaculate

Adam Smith,
considered as
the father of
capitalism
by Louis Even
One hears often: “Capitalism is not better
than Communism. The Church has condemned
both with the same vigour. So the capitalist system
deserves no more consideration than the
communist system.”
This is completely false. To say so is to attribute
to the capitalist system evils that come not
from the system itself, but from the abuse of individuals
who behave more like tyrants (like leaders
of Communist countries) than like citizens of a
country that is genuinely capitalist.
Pope Pius XI wrote this about Communism:
“Communism is intrinsically evil, and no one
who would save Christian civilization may collaborate
with it in any undertaking whatsoever”
(Encyclical letter Divini Redemptoris, n. 58).
However in another encyclical letter (Quadragesimo
Anno) Pope Pius XI wrote: “Capitalism
itself is not to be condemned. And surely it is not
vicious of its very nature, but it has been vitiated.”
One will see how it happened in this article.
Communism is intrinsically wrong, not only
because it divides man from God, but also because
of the little importance it attaches to the in-
January-February 010
January-February 2010
Date of issue: February 2010
Capitalism versus Communism
“Communism is intrinsically evil”,
wrote Pope Pius XI
Capitalism responds to the aspirations
of the human person, but it has been
vitiated by the current financial system
dividual, even in the temporal area. Communism
degrades the human person. It does not take into
consideration the nature of man, created by God.
It tramples on the individual’s freedom of choice.
For Communism, man is nothing but a tool that
can be used for the goals of the Party, a tool that
must abide by those goals or be crushed ruthlessly.
Communism is tyrannical to the highest degree.
Once in power, the Communist Party allows
nothing that could jeopardize its ideal. It exercises
absolute control over everything and everybody.
It orders what to do or not to do: you must accept
what the State decides for you or it will make your
life miserable.
The capitalist system has not reached this
point. The flaws for which it is blamed are not inherent
to capitalism itself and do not come from
its nature but from the financial system it utilizes.
It is a financial system that dominates instead of
serves. It is the financial system that vitiates capitalism.
The capitalist
system is, by definition,
a system that
answers to the aspirations
of human nature.
In fact, capitalism
can be defined
as a system that
recognizes and protects
private property,
free enterprise,
freedom of choice
for the human person,
the sovereignty
of consumers over
the objectives of
production through
free markets — the
products: chosen or
ordered by the consumers, guide the programs
of production.
Some will object: “Things do not exactly happen
like that in our capitalist countries. Private
property is being given a rough time, especially in
the means of production, which is being enjoyed
by an increasingly small minority of people. The
majority must enter the service of the minority,
for fear of starvation through lack of purchasing
power. The lack of purchasing power kills or reduces
the freedom of the choice of goods and
therefore suppresses the sovereignty of the consumers
over the objectives of production. Do not
conflicts between employers, who constitute a
minority, and employees, who constitute the majority,
show that the present system has difficulties
in answering the aspirations of people and
that even capitalism attaches little importance to
the freedom of choice of the majority?”
The answer to this objection is precisely in
the fact that capitalism is restricted to the minority
and is not distributed to be enjoyed by the majority.
One cannot say that a country lives under a
capitalist system when capitalism concerns only
5 percent of the population and that 95 percent
of the people only live thanks to the permission
or goodwill of the other five. Such a system is
therefore only five percent capitalist and 95 per-
cent slavery. It is getting closer to Communism, as
the power to dominate the lives of others is being
concentrated into fewer hands.
It is therefore not the capitalist economy in
itself that must be blamed. One must not wish
for the destruction of capitalism, but for its widespread
diffusion. If there is only 5 percent of the
population of a nation that enjoys the status of a
capitalist, one must strive to increase this percentage
to 100 percent, instead of wishing to bring it
down to zero percent.
Through Social Credit
This is exactly what a Social Credit financial
system would do, in replacement of the present
financial system that dominates, intoxicates and
slowly destroys, genuine capitalism. Social Credit
would turn every citizen into a capitalist by right. In
the economic field, man would be re-established
in his liberty and be given the right to organize
his life according to his own choice, provided he
respects this same right for other people.
Also economically
speaking,
the greatest benefit
of being a capitalist,
when man
knows how to
put a limit to the
pursuit of ever increasing
material
wealth, is his freedom
of choice.
Insofar as his capitalist
income allows
him to live
decently, he is
free to accept or
refuse any project
that is being
proposed to him.
His income is not conditioned by personal participation
in production, so he can use his free time
as he wishes. He may certainly still accept a job,
but he may also do activities of his own choosing
— and these activities may well contribute to the
enrichment of society, with wealth that is not necessarily
material. Free labour is generally more
creative and fruitful than hard labour.
Families cannot have access to God-given plenty
because governments bow down to Mammon
This capitalist income is called a dividend.
This dividend brings unconditional economic security
or “absolute economic security”, to use the
words of Douglas, the founder of the Social Credit
school of thought. As for the wages and salaries,
even though they are sufficient for a decent living,
they can only offer a limited and conditioned economic
security, a security conditioned by a job,
employment or a type of bondage.
Those who praise wages and discredit dividends
are praising bondage and discrediting freedom.
Trade unions and other groups who advocate
full-employment policies associate the right
to live with bondage. As for the Social Crediters,
they advocate the distribution of a social dividend
to each and every individual. They want an
economic system of freedom for everyone, the
right to live tied to the human person and not to
the fact that this person is hired in production or
(continued on page 4)
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Karl Marx,
thought of as
the father of
communism
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