John Zmirak on Catholics Who Pontificate About Economics

He examines "how too many Catholics look at economics and public policy," suggesting the Faith offers them "a high-minded rhetoric of noble-sounding values, a sense of moral superiority, and unrestricted license to speak and write as a crank" — Baptism Is Not an Economics Degree. An excerpt:

Whatever the facts of the matter, regardless of learned arguments, they know without thinking too hard or reading too much that the "Catholic" answer (as they dimly understand it) must be correct . . . so they need not bother slogging through the trouble of doing any research. Having read about an issue (perhaps for the first time) in some Church document or other, they seize upon a relative Good it recommends:


• The Church supports a "living wage."


• . . . and decent conditions for workers.


• . . . and opportunity for the poor.


• . . . and "economic justice."


• . . . and "rights for immigrants."


• . . . and health care.

Then they treat this desideratum as an unconditioned absolute, as binding as the right to life, more important than liberty or property. They don't feel the need to master even the basics of the discipline they're considering, but rather grab left and right at whatever facts will help them build a case. If they're talking about economics, they'll cite a Gospel verse here, quote St. Francis there, throw in some abuse of "usury," maybe even summon some half-remembered Chesterton -- then wrap it in a pretty pink bow with a long quotation from a bishops' pastoral letter and act as if they've made a genuine argument. If you ask about the costs of the policies they propose, or the dangers of bureaucratic management, they won't respond to specifics, but rather start pounding the table and accusing you of "dissent" from Catholic teaching . . . as if you'd marched right out and joined Planned Parenthood or the Klan.

That's just the beginning of his take-down of "Catholics who grandstand about 'distributive justice' and offer Rube Goldberg schemes for re-engineering our country's economy, without knowing or caring how wealth is produced in the first place."