In the latter half of the 1960s many U.S. cities experienced race riots. Plus, the exodus to suburbs that began in the 1950s accelerated in the 1960s and into the 1970s. Plus, industry left our Atlantic coast and Great Lakes cities, moving to the South or overseas. All of this made for the first urban crisis. Demographer Richard Florida details a second one in The New Urban Crisis (Basic Books, 2017). The new crisis is inequality. It is “the concentration... Read more

In philosophy it is called utilitarianism. In business it is called cost-benefit-analysis. In family life it is thinking about the pluses and minuses. It is the default moral system in the United States and elsewhere. It is functional in limited situations. It has no place, however, in calculating the value of one or another human life. Many college students have participated in a class exercise where they must choose to throw one person into shark infested sea because their small... Read more

Museum of the City of New York (1220 Fifth St., New York, NY 10029) just ended an exhibit about the history of workers in its city. It’s not too late, however, to enjoy the exhibit. It is the basis for City of Workers, City of Struggle edited by Joshua Freeman (Museum of City of NY, 2019; $40). Our Chicago Public Library has a copy, as do other libraries. The book’s introduction notes that working people help define politics, culture and... Read more

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), Max Weber (1864-1920) and other founders of the discipline of sociology were concerned about the negatives that accompany modernity. Why is it that people live closer together, yet in their proximity they are strangers? Why in the highly rational and efficient modern world do people struggle to find any meaning within their day? What happened to a world that was once teleological, infused with meaning, enchanting in the morning and delightful at sunset? Why with so much... Read more

“Consuming and participating in politics by obsessive news-following [and] by arguing and debating” is not politics, says Eitan Hersh in Politics Is for Power (Simon & Schuster [2020]; $27). To binge on MSNBC, devour Fox News or constantly share one’s opinions with friends and family on social media or in phone calls, is “to satisfy our own emotional needs and intellectual curiosities” but in itself serves no “serious purpose.” Hersh calls the trap political hobbyism: Instead of electoral engagement (canvassing,... Read more

A woman in a friendly poker game is dealt a lousy hand. Nonetheless, she leans in with a sparkle in her eye. She bets with confidence. On her turn to draw cards, she requests zero. Her bluff or gamesmanship is part of poker. It’s normal, expected and ethical. Her roommate, who is not playing, circles the table, replenishing drinks. Her roommate gives the woman a small cue about the prospects for the other players. This is cheating. Anyone who plays... Read more

Clothes were once made in the U.S. Yes, labor abuses occurred in our domestic production–in cotton plantations, mills and factories. Conditions greatly improved, however, with the labor laws and reforms introduced by President Franklin Roosevelt (1882-1945) and his Labor Secretary Frances Perkins (1880-1965). Through the post-World War II years, New York City’s Garment District “had more apparel factories than anywhere else in the world,” Dana Thomas, a fashion expert based in Paris, writes in Fashionapolis (Penguin, 2019). From there production... Read more

Will your shopping for gifts this holy season include buying apparel? Be warned: It will be difficult to find clean clothes. Some are hopelessly stained with child labor, even slavery. Most have flaws like sweatshop wages, dangerous working conditions, wage theft, harassment and more. In recent years some consumers have shown interest in healthier food. The slow food movement has even reached the menus within the biggest fast food chains. Now a slow fashion movement is budding. For example, you... Read more

Lobbying the alderman for a stop sign at the end of the block is a moral activity. An organization opposing hydraulic fracturing is taking a moral stance. The county budget is a moral document. On the other hand… There’s a crucial “difference between moralism and morality,” writes Greg Weiner in National Affairs (Fall 2019). To understand that difference “is the first step toward reclaiming a politics of moral ends.” Can the neighbors admit that good reasons could exist for not... Read more

The Working Catholic: Strikes by Bill Droel Strikes are in the news: auto workers, janitors, teachers, hotel workers and more. Catholicism has a well-developed doctrine on labor relations that includes moral considerations regarding strikes. Most Catholics, I suspect, know nothing about this doctrine. Some who know about it don’t accept it. Catholicism says that a wholesome, holy society must have bargaining associations for workers. This teaching is part of the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity. It also fits with Catholicism’s... Read more