Gerard Henderson makes this claim in the Sydney Morning Herald:
'The unfashionable fact is that nations which have paid heed to Catholic social teaching have had poor economic outcomes. Ireland and Italy come to mind. Ireland recovered from high unemployment only after it embraced economic reform. '
Justifiable? The rest of the article is very interesting too, on the right of Church leaders to make public comment and the inconsistency of politicians and journalists in supporting them when they do so.
7 comments:
Hmm. I'll have a look at the article but I can't help exclaiming 'at this point in time!' Let's see where we are in a decade or so, after financial meltdowns and Peak oil etc - and then see which economies are in better shape...
Yeah, that sentence annoyed me somewhat. If you want to assess the abilities of two sports coaches, it is not enough to stand on the sidelines during a game between their teams and shout "Look at the scoreboard!". The scoreboard is clearly relevant, but surely there are other variables?
(And are there not ways of liberalising a labour market [or an economy] that would be more rather than less heedful of the bishops' concerns?)
Henderson almost always has worthwhile points to make, but he seems to have no interest in the canons of reasonable argument. I am more than happy to have the pretensions of our soi-disant intelligensia skewered. But how is it worthwhile to constantly load up the discussion with bile directed at leftist commentators? And how is it helpful to make one's most tendentious arguments in throwaway sentences --- as if they were simple facts --- rather than mounting a serious argument?
Michael - got a link?
Click on the title of the post.
Yes, it is rather unaccetably snide. I think the Irish case is more interesting than the Italian one. How could one make any generalisations about Italy and Italians? On the other hand, there is an interesting history to be written about Catholic social policy and its effectiveness or not.
In my forthcoming pro-Catholic book href=http://connorcourt.com/catalog1/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=42>Life to the Full: Rights and Social Justice in Australia I argue that modern so-called capitalism is successful because it approximately implements Catholic social justice principles.
Thereby arguing exactly the reverse of the article above!
Post a Comment