Posted on 01/20/2014 2:04:50 PM PST by Welchie25
Maryland’s Catholic bishops released a joint statement Jan. 20 urging fair treatment of workers. The statement coincides with Poverty Awareness Month and the state’s legislative session, where increasing the minimum wage and mandating paid sick leave for low-wage workers are already in the spotlight.
The bishops make clear they want Maryland to enact legislation promoting “just compensation and a healthy work environment.” “While we hope one day the issue of raising the minimum wage will be addressed at the federal level, we cannot afford to wait in Maryland,” they stated.
Titled “The Dignity of Work,” the one-page statement was released in English and Spanish. The following are five points Catholics can take from the piece.
1. The church’s call for a living wage is nothing new. “Throughout the history of the social teachings of the Church, the right of all people to fair compensation for their labor has been upheld as an essential element of a just society,” the bishops stated. In “Rerum Novarum,” published in 1891 and considered the first of the modern social encyclicals, Pope Leo XIII argued that workers should be paid a wage sufficient to support a family, according to the bishops’ statement.
2. Minimum wage is not a living wage. “A full-time worker earning the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 earns little more than $15,000 annually, hardly enough to pay for food and rent, let alone support a family,” the bishops stated, adding that more 80 percent of the state’s low-wage workers are adults, many with children. “They deserve the comfort of knowing that their hard work can provide the means they need to achieve economic stability for themselves and their families.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicreview.org ...
Gads, you don't understand economics at all.
What do you think happens when you invest money in a company? (Hint: the company hires people, or buys capital equipment investments that cause other companies to keep people employed.)
What do you think happens when you deposit money at a bank? (Hint: the money becomes available for others to use, at a fair and reasonable interest rate, so they can purchase needed items like transportation and housing.)
Insane. At least, since I left the church, I can voluntarily join / leave these conversations on boards like this, rather than get inundated with such ignorance in the context of the church.
What’s the Bishops take on the Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30? God punished the guy with 1 talent who didn’t grow it in the capitalist system. The opposit of Social Justice.
Faith-based socialism?
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
JPII tells us the absolute truth about feel-good legilslation like minimum wage hikes:
It should be noted that in today's world, among other rights, the right of economic initiative is often suppressed. Yet it is a right which is important not only for the individual but also for the common good. Experience shows us that the denial of this right, or its limitation in the name of an alleged "equality" of everyone in society, diminishes, or in practice absolutely destroys the spirit of initiative, that is to say the creative subjectivity of the citizen. As a consequence, there arises, not so much a true equality as a "leveling down." In the place of creative initiative there appears passivity, dependence and submission to the bureaucratic apparatus which, as the only "ordering" and "decision-making" body - if not also the "owner"- of the entire totality of goods and the means of production, puts everyone in a position of almost absolute dependence, which is similar to the traditional dependence of the worker-proletarian in capitalism. This provokes a sense of frustration or desperation and predisposes people to opt out of national life, impelling many to emigrate and also favoring a form of "psychological" emigration.
Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 15
Now we can go back a few decades to see the wisdom of Pius XI on the subject:
…But another point, scarcely less important, and especially vital in our times, must not be overlooked: namely, that the opportunity to work be provided to those who are able and willing to work. This opportunity depends largely on the wage and salary rate, which can help as long as it is kept within proper limits, but which on the other hand can be an obstacle if it exceeds these limits. For everyone knows that an excessive lowering of wages, or their increase beyond due measure, causes unemployment…
Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, 72
Now as to whether the so-called "Maryland Catholic Conference" should talk about this, let us also refer to the teachings of the Church:
As JPII stated (specifically about economic models):
43. The Church has no models to present; models that are real and truly effective can only arise within the framework of different historical situations, through the efforts of all those who responsibly confront concrete problems in all their social, economic, political and cultural aspects, as these interact with one another.
Encyclical Centessimus Annus, 43
Or as Paul VI stated (more generally):
The Church, which has long experience in human affairs and has no desire to be involved in the political activities of any nation, "seeks but one goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth; to save, not to judge; to serve, not to be served.''
Encyclical Populorum Progressio, 13
Or as our Beloved Benedict XVI summarized very clearly:
The Church does not have technical solutions to offer and does not claim “to interfere in any way in the politics of States.” She does, however, have a mission of truth to accomplish, in every time and circumstance, for a society that is attuned to man, to his dignity, to his vocation.
Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, 9
Even Vatican II had it right.
Vatican II teaches us that the governance of the world is the particular competence of the laity, not the clergy.
Secular duties and activities belong properly although not exclusively to laymen. Therefore acting as citizens in the world, whether individually or socially, they will keep the laws proper to each discipline, and labor to equip themselves with a genuine expertise in their various fields. They will gladly work with men seeking the same goals. Acknowledging the demands of faith and endowed with its force, they will unhesitatingly devise new enterprises, where they are appropriate, and put them into action. Laymen should also know that it is generally the function of their well-formed Christian conscience to see that the divine law is inscribed in the life of the earthly city; from priests they may look for spiritual light and nourishment. Let the layman not imagine that his pastors are always such experts, that to every problem which arises, however complicated, they can readily give him a concrete solution, or even that such is their mission. Rather, enlightened by Christian wisdom and giving close attention to the teaching authority of the Church,(17) let the layman take on his own distinctive role.
Often enough the Christian view of things will itself suggest some specific solution in certain circumstances. Yet it happens rather frequently, and legitimately so, that with equal sincerity some of the faithful will disagree with others on a given matter. Even against the intentions of their proponents, however, solutions proposed on one side or another may be easily confused by many people with the Gospel message. Hence it is necessary for people to remember that no one is allowed in the aforementioned situations to appropriate the Church's authority for his opinion. They should always try to enlighten one another through honest discussion, preserving mutual charity and caring above all for the common good.
Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, 43
In light of the above, I, for one, would prefer it if the episcopal hierarchy and their staffs would really concentrate primarily upon those moral principles and assist with the formation of the lay peoples' consciences. And then, as is taught in GS (above), the laity should use those consciences, in conjunction with their technical skills, to formulate solutions. Provided those solutions do not clearly and unambiguously violate moral teaching, I would think it appropriate that the hierarchy remain silent.
Placemarker
Well said.
There's already a robot in use that can make 360 hamburgers an hour --- shape them, fry them to individual customer's specifications, put them on a bun, top each with custom requested dressings, and wrap them --- at such cost that it would pay for itself in little more than a year, or if wages go up, of course, in less than a year. If fry cooks get an increased minimum wage, what hamburger chain five years from now is not going to go for this level of automation, and dump all their fry cooks?
Something like 70% of entry-level jobs are automatable, and employers WILL automate if incentivized by minimum wage laws.
The Maryland Catholic Bishops are carrying out a huge structural injustice against the unemployed via Minimum Wage.
Oh --- that, and legalize millions and millions of illegals.
Which the sainted Pope Leo called a "crime which cries out to Heaven"--- exploiting immigrant workers.
It is inappropriate to raise the minimum wage to the point of supporting a family, when many jobs are considered entry-level and are suitable for teenagers still living at home, but needing to learn work skills. If they have to wait to get expensive but scarce jobs when they are fully adult, they will miss out on a lot of learning.
The trouble is that kids want to drop out of school, raise ruckus in the classroom and not pay attention to learning anything, then get a job flipping burgers or running a broom and expect a low-skill job to provide for your baby mamma, your manicures or your weed. Raising the minimum wage will just push us farther down the road to the world owing you a living. That's not what the Bible says, at all, in one parable after another. it also commands us to avoid covetousness.
It's just that charity should be done privately and individually -- effortfully, if you will -- so that God can see you really mean it.
When we allow the government to confiscate and redistribute, that is not charity. The hearts of the tax-oppressed often get filled with laziness, resentment or even tax cheating -- not charity, sacrifice and devotion.
And pays for unionists, abortions, morning-after pills, subsidies to anti-Christian initiatives, bailouts, foreign governments, advertising, pork and waste.
You’d fit right in at 20th Century Motor Company, after the passing of Jed Starnes.
I've told my three children that doing your best in school (or any endeavor) is no guarantee of success, but it greatly improves one's chances.
Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent. ~ Euripides.
Great Post!
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