Pope Francis urges governments to redistribute wealth to the poor — maybe even half of it (via Raw Story )
Pope Francis called on “legitimate redistribution” of wealth by the world’s governments to undo the “economy of exclusion” underlying capitalist society. The pontiff appealed Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major…
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Well that is awkward, Dems have spent the last several decades convincing the public that only education would give people economic value, otherwise they were worthless and doomed to inevitable poverty... and then comes along the Pope and says it doesn't have to be this way.
Call me crazy but I don't expect Dem's obsession with Education and Repub's worship of capital to go away anytime soon.
Latest-
Congress rejects Pope's call for Mutualism and that there's more to life than Individualism and the Culture of Death. Capitol and White House sink back into swamp from whence they came.
Poor Pope, Poor Picketty, the disingenuous Libertarians are onto you. If the Federal Reserve as an adjunct of government is bad then wait till the two P's get going:-
https://rare.us/story/romney-slams-quantitative-easing-policy-biggest-contributor-to-income-inequality/
Romney has figured out which way the wind is blowing and is telling the GOP that they are pissing into the wind.
He's also come out for an immigration policy with political legs instead of cutting of the GOP legs with Latinos and other minorities.
Rand Paul has also come out against voter ID laws as alienating Blacks from the GOP.
"However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you," Deut 15:4
Ahhh, sorry God, Christendumb has a better idea: periodic redistribution of stock measures of material possessions to soothe human consciences and justify ourselves...
Nothing wrong with a jubilee ;)
Well the way I look at it is a 'jubilee' is just a periodic redistribution of stocks... when things get all screwed up (like we have now btw...) and misses the larger point, and is a slippery slope into self justification, charity, etc...
The law mandated a continuous equitable distribution of flows...
Even within the scripture the Pope cites with the reference to Zacheus all he did was give up half of his possessions (huparchonton) the scripture does not indicate that Zacheus should have given up his portion of the allotment, that was his to keep as was his right...
"8 Now standing, Zaccheus said to the Lord, "Lo! the half of my possessions, Lord, I am giving to the poor! And if from anyone I get anything by blackmail, I am giving back fourfold."
9 Now Jesus said to him that "Today salvation came to this home, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of Mankind came to seek and to save the lost."
Zacheus was 'lost' ie wayward from the law and seeking possessions (stock measures), etc... he wasnt alone in this transgression as we can see there were plenty of "poor" in Israel at the time which would have been impossible (see the passage from Deuteronomy above) if they were following the law.
So the Pope here misses the whole point of the scripture... which was for the house of Israel to stop worrying about possession of stock measures of wealth (which btw was a result of the lawless DIS-possession of others...) and just be satisfied with your guaranteed portion of the flows... which was ROBUST btw...
But short of that a jubilee I guess wouldnt hurt..... but if that's all we do I'm afraid we remain blind and stupid (present company excepted) to the process of preventing our fellow man from becoming "poor" in the first place...
rsp.
"Romney has figured out which way the wind is blowing and is telling the GOP that they are pissing into the wind."
So, are you saying Romney is a weather vane?
"He's also come out for an immigration policy with political legs instead of cutting of the GOP legs with Latinos and other minorities."
Define immigration policy with political legs.
Rand Paul has also come out against voter ID laws as alienating Blacks from the GOP."
My money is on Ran Paul.
If you want to redistribute wealth, stop bailing out Wall Street banks. As a wayward Catholic I have to say that I like Pope Francis, but wake me the Vatican divests itself of its palaces, art treasures, real estate and banks.
Romney is not the only Establishment Republican warning about wander too far from the center. He just happens to be one of those who is in contention for the nomination in 2016 if he chooses to run again. I suspect he will.
The GOP has a problem with the base on wedge issues that have worked in the past but which the demographics are now running against. Savvy candidates realize that. The question is how to navigate around the base to get the nomination in a primary dominate by the base.
Immigration is a big one, since the Latino vote is becoming crucial demographically and if they perceive the GOP as biased, the GOP is heading for trouble in the future. Same with Asians. The problem is that the GOP is becoming the party of aging Southern and Western white men.
This is a reason that Jeb Bush looms large. G. W. did well with Latinos, and Jeb should do even better, having married a Latina and speaking fluent Spanish.
Rand Paul is tacking toward the center, too, but also trying to manage the base.
Ed,
"The church" has no authority and never really did... in fact "the church" imo worked/works to undermine the true superior authority of our civil govt...
So all Francis can do is every now and them come out like this and suggest an ad hoc redistribution of economic stocks when things get all screwed up ... but cannot see a system that would prevent people from being made "poor" in the first place...
That type of system imposed thru our institution of civil govt (which Paul termed "the superior authority" Romans 13:1) would undermine this false institution of "the church" (metonym alert!) so Francis, as more or less the global titular/majesterial head of the competing institution of Christendom or "the church" cannot see it. All he can come up with is a call for "redistribution" ie treating the symptom and not the cure...
The Vatican economics dept I'm sure is a disgrace just like all the other economics depts in the academe.
rsp,
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