Tech Moguls, Financial Elites and the Danger of Oligarchy.

“What Marxism got right is this: Social classes exist; some of the time, they have some common interests that conflict with the interests of other classes; and class inequality can, if allowed to grow too extreme, become a major social problem. Conservatives once widely recognized at least the last point. They also understood that an economic elite too widely separated from the rest of society would inevitably exert a corrosive force on traditional institutions and systems of belief. This is certainly happening in the United States right now….  Alexander Riley, New Oxford Review, Letters  December 2022

“If poverty is the root of all evil [as Socialists believe] then money and riches must be the root of all good, contrary to the teachings of Our Lord” — Archbishop Fulton J Sheen.

Catholics repudiate Marxism. We don’t want anything like it. But to prevent another oppressive evil of similar magnitude –e.g., the control of the many by the few, even controlling government leaders– sometimes it is necessary to “fair-tax” the hell out of their businesses, for the safety all. The hard-working lucky billionaires have a responsibility to the rest of society. We don’t advocate envy or greed but simple fairness.

Nor should Antitrust measures be forgotten. Marxism has no exclusive claim on justice. Antitrust measures are laws and regulations designed to promote competition and prevent unfair business practices that could lead to monopolies or anti-competitive behavior. The main goals of antitrust measures are to ensure a level playing field for businesses, protect consumers from abusive practices, and foster innovation and efficiency.

“The good of the whole takes precedence over the good of the individual,” the Angelic Doctor wrote in his Summa Theologica. 

And St. Thomas believed that the good must be enforced.

“The distribution of created goods, which, as every discerning person knows, is labouring today under the gravest evils due to the huge disparity between the few exceedingly rich and the unnumbered propertyless, must be effectively called back to and brought into conformity with the norms of the common good, that is, social justice,” Pius XI wrote in Quadragesimo Anno.

“It is no robbery if princes exact from their subjects that which is due to them for the safe-guarding of the common good, even if they use violence in doing so,” said St. Thomas.

“Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic,” Pope Benedict wrote in Caritas in Veritate.

“This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility”.

+ Has Elon Musk Effectively Taken Over the Government? [Debate includes strong language]. Will he own the post-Trump years? Who’s using who? To what ends?

Pope Pius XI on Despotic Economic Powers, Quadragesimo Anno

Pope Pius XI in 1931 warned of International Finance, the grave dangers of ‘economic domination’ accumulated in the hands of the few

He warned in Quadragesimo Anno  (On the Reconstruction of the Social Order) of the dangers of international finance controlling credit, crushing competition and families. And this message flows directly and seamlessly from the teachings of Christ who came also to liberate the poor.

It should go without saying that neither Jew or Gentile, or any race / ethnicity or religion, has a special claim to evil and greed in history…” Read it here.

And the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22:7

“To simplify, the inequity of the world’s banking system is the fact that the money borrowed from a bank is created out of nothing. On the other hand, the borrower must actually produce real goods and services to earn money to pay back the loan plus interest.

“When bankers create money faster than the economy grows, the purchasing power of the dollar declines which is known as inflation. The majority of the population is competing like wild animals during a famine to earn enough money to pay their debts and feed their families.

“A thirty-year-debt-slave is someone that has a home mortgage. First, the debtor is borrowing money that was created out of nothing through fractional reserve lending.

Second, after years of making payments, the debtor may become injured or unemployed. The bank will then foreclose and sell the house. The bank will keep the proceeds of the sale and all the principal and interest that the borrower paid prior to going into default. Therefore, the borrower, who normally puts down only 20 percent (or much less) of the purchase price, bears almost 100% percent of the risk despite the fact that the bank decided to loan the other 80% (or more).

Third, the cost of a home loan is approximately double the amount borrowed when thirty years of interest payments are included. For example, if a borrower with good credit buys a $300,000 house and puts down 20 percent ($60,000), the borrower will borrow $240,000 from the bankers. The interest on a $240,000 loan at 5% (a historically low interest rate) over thirty years is $223,813.88. Therefore, the total cost of the $300,000 home is actually $463,813.88 (not including property taxes and insurance). Run the numbers yourself.

Credit Card Usury

Those who do not pay off their credit cards each month are slaves to usury…”

+ Communism: A Christian heresy

+ Billionaires and farmland in the United States