{"id":92784,"date":"2015-06-03T00:21:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T07:21:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=92784"},"modified":"2015-06-03T15:44:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T22:44:57","slug":"false-prophets-of-mammon-the-real-non-negotiables-and-the-real-politics-of-envy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2015\/06\/false-prophets-of-mammon-the-real-non-negotiables-and-the-real-politics-of-envy.html","title":{"rendered":"False Prophets of Mammon, the Real Non-Negotiables, and the Real Politics of Envy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

To begin with:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t our rising generation do this anymore?:<\/a><\/p>\n

The result is what analysts are calling the hourglass economy where the wealthy do well, those with low-incomes fare poorly, and the middle-class disappears. Others have described the most recent income trends as the Great Slide where more and more Americans fall out of the middle-class because of job loss, rising foreclosure, and dwindling savings for retirement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In contrast to such insanity, the Church urges a living wage (Rerum Novarum<\/a> 45-46).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a living wage? A living wage fulfills four criteria:
\n1. Families in general seem to be living at a standard of decency appropriate to their society;
\n2. They do so without working undue hours;
\n3. They do so without wives being forced to work outside the home or children forced to work inappropriate hours or under inappropriate conditions (if they choose to do so, that\u2019s another story);
\n4. They do so without undue reliance on government support or consumer credit.<\/p>\n

And the Church repeats this call for a living wage constantly:<\/p>\n

Pope John XXIII, Pacem et Terris, (11 Apr, 1963), 20. \u201cThe worker is likewise entitled to a wage that is determined in accordance with the precepts of justice. This needs stressing. The amount a worker receives must be sufficient, in proportion to available funds, to allow him and his family a standard of living consistent with human dignity.\u201d;<\/p>\n

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, (15 May, 1961), 18 \u201cThey concern first of all the question of work, which must be regarded not merely as a commodity, but as a specifically human activity. In the majority of cases a man\u2019s work is his sole means of livelihood. Its remuneration, therefore, cannot be made to depend on the state of the market. It must be determined by the laws of justice and equity. Any other procedure would be a clear violation of justice, even supposing the contract of work to have been freely entered into by both parties.\u201d;<\/p>\n

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, (15 May, 1961), 71 \u201cIt must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nowhere in the United States can people making minimum wage possibly afford a 2 bedroom apartment.<\/a>\u00a0If you are one of the many who have been trained to think that the only Catholic Social Teaching that matters is abortion, let me put it this way: What this translates into is immense pressure to abort when new families are holding down two and three jobs to barely keep their noses above water, or when dad can\u2019t take it and ditches the family.<\/p>\n

So some people (many of us motivated precisely by Church teaching<\/a>) advocate, as a small measure to improve the lot of the working poor and alleviate pressure to abort, a raise in the minimum wage. It\u2019s not a panacaea, but it\u2019s a step in the right direction. If you care about preventing abortion, you should care about this.<\/p>\n

But the response from the reliably wrong Movement Conservative is not \u201cAbortion is a non-negotiable! \u00a0If this will help reduce abortion rates, I\u2019m all for it!\u201d. \u00a0Instead, it is a reliably cocky demand that we trust in his infallible prophetic powers and pull out the stops to prevent<\/em> a raise in the minimum wage. It will hurt the economy. Job loss! Replacement by robots. Business driven into bankruptcy! Ruin! Be very afraid. We just know this. Trust us!<\/p>\n

Now before being stampeded by such folks remember: you are listening to the same people who have been so wrong about so much so many times for so long that nobody should trust them to predict a coin toss, much less this. We are talking about people who predicted a glorious outcome to the Iraq War. People who hailed Cliven Bundy as a folk hero. People who, just last month, were foretelling that Obama was going to invade the southwest with a \u00a0massive force of 1200 people, declare martial law, and seize everybody\u2019s guns. \u00a0People who labored for years to say that torture was perfectly compatible with Catholic teaching. People who are reliably wrong in ways visible from the International Space Station. Gas was going to be $5.45 per gallon by 1\/1\/15. Unemployment was supposed to be stuck at over 8%. The stock market was supposed to crash. The entire U.S. economy was supposed to collapse.\u00a0Remember these\u00a0guys?:<\/p>\n

\"fouryearslater1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Or this guy?:<\/p>\n

\"Kristol<\/p>\n

Or the fact that they lied even to themselves in order to fend off the blandishments of reality with \u201cmath you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better\u201d?<\/p>\n

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