Expand Your Business, Increase Your Income!

by Thomas Storck

A slogan such as the title of this article seems simply common sense to probably most Americans. If sales are up, then certainly expanding your business is the natural thing to do, or at least to think of doing. If you own one restaurant and it is doing well, consider opening a second - and a third, and a fourth. Except that this logic is totally contrary to real common sense, to the purpose of economic activity, and to our hopes for eternal life.

Reflections on the Quarantine

People all around the world have been in a quarantine lock down due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak for about a month. In some areas, families can go for walks, while in other areas people are only allowed to go outside for things like getting food. This crisis imposed isolation, called "social distancing," is raising certain questions about how our society is structured and what we value.

Is Distributism the "official" Catholic economic system?

One accusation that is often made against distributists is that we claim distributism is the official economic system of the Catholic Church. This is because we frequently cite official Catholic teaching in support of our positions, and also because of the undeniable fact that Distributism started as a primarily Catholic movement, with a primarily Catholic leadership, in response to papal teaching. Distributism is, after all, the attempt to apply philosophical principles of ethics and morals to the economic and political spheres in a way that is specifically consistent with Catholic teaching. So, does that mean we claim it is the official economic system of the Catholic Church? In this article, I dare to give an authoritative answer to that question.

Consumer Choice and Society

by Thomas Storck

Those who like to celebrate the contemporary capitalist economy frequently do so in terms of choice. Some are quite open that it is consumer choice that excites them, the ability to pick and choose among an immense variety of products, according to one's whims and desires. Others, more conscious of the shallowness implicit in reducing man to simply a consumer of goods, are wont to point out that even though our society itself may be preoccupied with material possessions, we ourselves as individuals are free to occupy ourselves with better things, with cultural or spiritual goods, for example.  While of course this is true, one might wonder why so few people seem to manifest much interest in these latter types of goods. But perhaps the real problem here is the attempt to reduce human choice solely to the individual level. It is true, of course, that individuals do have the freedom to choose. Our wills were created by God to desire goods, but we have the freedom to choose among goods, to choose appropriately or not, to make choices that do not interfere with the attainment of our eternal salvation, or that make this more difficult or even impossible to attain. This does not mean, of course, that we must always choose the highest goods; rather, as the collect for the Third Sunday after Pentecost in the traditional Roman rite puts it, in such a balanced way, that "we may make use of [transeamus] temporal goods so as not to loose eternal goods."

The Cost of Comparative Advantage

The advocates of Free Trade deals between countries frequently cite the fact that more products are made available at a lower cost to consumers as proof that their idea makes economic sense. Their explanation of how this works rests on the idea of Comparative Advantage,[1] the idea that one country can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than other countries. Based on this idea, if the industries in one country focus on those products where they have the lowest opportunity cost, and import products where they don't, this provides an abundance of lower priced goods for everyone. For the advocates of Free Trade, price [2] appears to be the ultimate test of what is economically good. They scoff at opponents and critics of Free Trade as if their criticisms of it are completely without merit. Even some economists who have dared to question Free Trade, still try to uphold Comparative Advantage as a reasonable idea.[3] The reality is that the Free Trade ideology ultimately rests on Comparative Advantage. Therefore, it is prudent to examine the criticisms of it to see if they do, in fact, merit consideration. I believe that history has proven that they do.

Global Trade vs. Free Trade

Those who know the positions of distributists will understand that we are generally not in favor of modern "Free Trade" schemes. It seems, however, that some may misinterpret this and conclude that we are isolationists. After all, it is not unfair to say that we are not only in favor of localism, but that we put more emphasis on it than others who also favor that idea. This has led some to question what a distributist position on trade would be.