10-24-2007, 12:22 AM
The following article makes some very valid points...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment...695160.ece
From Times OnlineOctober 19, 2007
Wealth creation can atone for the sins of Mammon
Credo Peter Mullen
(selections)
"...Prime Minister Thatcher's memorable address when she said that the Good Samaritan would have been useless unless he'd had some money to pay the innkeeper to look after the one who fell among thieves."
"Capitalism reflects Christian teaching in that it accepts the doctrine of Original Sin and works with the grain of human nature rather than against it. It accepts that we are self-interested and then shows how sincere self-interest can work to the good of all. A man who wants to do well for himself and his family is likely to produce something which will be of use and value to the community at large."
"Socialism — the favoured ideology of the modern churchman — is an unrealistic economic system that has been shown to fail too many times for that particular lesson to have to be learnt again. Give me a mitigated evil any day, rather than an unworkable ideology which is only a sentimental fantasy. Look around the world and you notice that those countries which have hitched their wagon to wealth creation through private enterprise and you see populations thriving. Look at the nations which have rejected this path and you see populations in poverty and want."
"I do not see any virtue in the fantasy economics of socialism. And capitalism is not a perfect system. No system is. That's the whole point of Original Sin. Socialists talk a great deal about economic justice and fair dealing, but I see no justice in vast subsidies and the socialistic creation of a fractious underclass rewarded by the giveaway culture of excessive benefits. It is not good for the sick and the needy to go hungry. But neither is it good, morally, for robust and able-bodied people to be encouraged to live on benefits rather than to work for a living."
"But we should not serve money: for that is the sin of Mammon"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment...695160.ece
From Times OnlineOctober 19, 2007
Wealth creation can atone for the sins of Mammon
Credo Peter Mullen
(selections)
"...Prime Minister Thatcher's memorable address when she said that the Good Samaritan would have been useless unless he'd had some money to pay the innkeeper to look after the one who fell among thieves."
"Capitalism reflects Christian teaching in that it accepts the doctrine of Original Sin and works with the grain of human nature rather than against it. It accepts that we are self-interested and then shows how sincere self-interest can work to the good of all. A man who wants to do well for himself and his family is likely to produce something which will be of use and value to the community at large."
"Socialism — the favoured ideology of the modern churchman — is an unrealistic economic system that has been shown to fail too many times for that particular lesson to have to be learnt again. Give me a mitigated evil any day, rather than an unworkable ideology which is only a sentimental fantasy. Look around the world and you notice that those countries which have hitched their wagon to wealth creation through private enterprise and you see populations thriving. Look at the nations which have rejected this path and you see populations in poverty and want."
"I do not see any virtue in the fantasy economics of socialism. And capitalism is not a perfect system. No system is. That's the whole point of Original Sin. Socialists talk a great deal about economic justice and fair dealing, but I see no justice in vast subsidies and the socialistic creation of a fractious underclass rewarded by the giveaway culture of excessive benefits. It is not good for the sick and the needy to go hungry. But neither is it good, morally, for robust and able-bodied people to be encouraged to live on benefits rather than to work for a living."
"But we should not serve money: for that is the sin of Mammon"