Human Work in Catholic Social Thought

In Catholic Social Thought, work is at the center of issues related to morality and economic life. It is simultaneously objective and subjective. Workers are the real agents of production, and therefore labor should have priority over capital. The able‐bodied have a moral obligation to work to obtain the things they need, but everyone has a claim on the basic necessities of life. Hence the property claims of the well‐to‐do are not to exclude the poor from what they need. The property‐right claim of stockholders depends on the firm serving work and the interests of workers. In unions, workers' natural right to form associations aligns with the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives. Numerous groups and organizations have some degree of complicity in workplace injustice and some degree of responsibility to address it.     

Universal Basic Income and Work in Catholic Social Thought

Catholic social thought (CST) has obvious resonance with universal basic income proposals, due to the tradition’s insistence on basic needs as human rights, comfort with government redistribution, and preference for programs that promote the agency of individuals and local communities, among other similarities. However, some CST scholars believe basic income challenges dearly held values of the tradition. This essay examines both views, concluding that basic income can comport with CST’s view of work, correctly understood.     

Work in Roman Catholic Thought

This essay examines the idea of work in the Catholic social tradition. Following introductory comments about the Christian vision of work found in the writings of St. Paul and other early Christian authors, the essay provides seven claims as a summary of how work is treated in modern Catholic social teaching. Based on those summary claims, a vision of what good work in the Catholic tradition looks like is then developed. Finally, the phenomenon of the “gig economy” is presented as a contemporary threat to the meaning of good work.     

Location of Decision Rights in Catholic Religious Orders

Organizational incentives are an important part of applied economics. Do even organizations like religious orders make the same trade‐offs and substitutions as predicted by economics for firms? It is argued here that religious orders face the problem of controlling the actions of their branch offices to assure the continued value and uniqueness of their trademark. We use the distinction between specific and general knowledge to analyze the optimal colocation of decision rights within the specific knowledge framework of a religious order. Assuming that knowledge is valuable in decision making, then the colocation of the decision authority with the particular knowledge that is beneficial to those decisions is preferable. With a sample of 114 local communities of 20 religious orders of the Roman Catholic Church, we empirically test whether the ratio of search/experience goods, of credence goods and the monitoring costs of the headquarter can explain the colocation of decision rights and authority within an order. Our findings give support for the hypothesis that religious orders at present make the same trade‐offs and substitutions as predicted by economics. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Catholic Social Thought and New Institutional Economics: An Assessment of Their Affinities and Areas of Potential Convergence

The potential link between Catholic social teaching (CST) and the theoretical developments associated with new institutional economics (NIE) are explored. The emphasis is on the contributions of two Nobel Prize winners in economics—Douglass C. North and Elinor Ostrom—and on the work of political scientist Vincent Ostrom. By adjusting the neoclassical presumptions dominating modern economic theory to include culture, ideas, and religious beliefs in the analysis of economic behavior, the economic and social theorizing developed by these scholars advances a framework that has significant affinities with CST’s foundational critique of economic concepts and theories and with its normative position regarding the nature and functioning of social and economic systems.     

Human Nature from a Catholic Perspective

Catholic views on personhood and human nature include emphasis on the dignity of each person, from womb to tomb. The claims made for this inviolable dignity invariably stem from the recognition that all human beings, regardless of their state of dependency, are made in the image of God and are thus the bearers of certain moral rights. But in our fallen state that image is wounded and needs to be repaired. Hence, Christians need to learn to recapitulate the life of Christ in their own lives by growing through the stages of human life according to the model that He presents to us. There are not only individual but corporate aspects to this growth. Catholic Social Teaching offers insights on the corporate and social condition in which we find ourselves. It has a healthy respect for the economic laws of the market and for the technical intricacies of efficient decision‐making processes in local, national, and world economies, but out of respect for human nature there are moral norms that need to be respected and that may never be violated. On the topic of property and private ownership, considerable attention is given to the very purpose of private property (namely, to provide individuals with a kind of independence that enhances their ability to do their duties to their dependence and that extends their freedom). But always correlated with this defense of private property is a sense of the social demands on private property that come from the common good and the communal purpose of all earthly goods.     

The Economics of Property Rights and Human Rights

A bstract . Human rights and property rights are rights of the person , with the former being numbered among the latter. The property rights school of economics analyzes the impact of maximizing behavior within alternative sets of institutional structures defined in terms of the definition and distribution of property rights. Property rights are tools or parameters, not goals of economic policy in themselves. It is useful to view human rights in the same way. The 'optimal' structure of human rights in an exchange economy , like property rights, depends on the nature of market imperfections such as transactions costs . The views of Rawls, Arrow and Sen can be interpreted in the light of this analysis. It makes a tentative case for some communal human rights (aimed at moderating the effects of an unequal ditribution of resources ) within a system of private human rights vested in individuals rather than the State. This conclusion depends, however, on the distribution of transactions costs in human rights and the chosen role of human rights as tools of public policy.     

Natural Rights,Human Rights,and Libertarianism

The present article is devoted to developing a libertarian understanding of whether natural rights may or may not underpin human rights and, if so, how. Libertarianism is first defined in terms of the nonaggression principle (NAP), in answer to the question “What is the proper use of force?” This provides a basis for the libertarian positions on property rights, taxation, and many other issues, including human rights. Various philosophical rationales for the NAP are explored, including utilitarianism, religion, and natural rights. The basis of human rights is then examined. Every ethical tradition supports the nonaggression principle, which makes it an ideal candidate for the fundamental basis of human rights. Unfortunately, other traditions expand upon human rights by adding “positive” rights that ultimately violate the NAP. The conclusion takes up the application of libertarian principles to three issues, which could be viewed as human rights questions: discrimination, abortion, and the “trolley problem.” The last one involves taking one life to save many others.     

农民工社会保障的人权维度分析

庞德认为,权利的本质就是一种合理的期望。农民工社会保障权就是这样一种合理的期望,最初是作为应用权利存在的,是人权最初和最完整的形态。本文旨从应然逻辑出发,从平等权、生存权、发展权三个人权维度视阈,具体考量和剖析农民工社会保障权的正当性、合理性与现实性。     

Humane Capital: A Reexamination of Catholic Social Teachings in Light of the Shift to Human Capital

Human capital is the set of productive knowledge, skills, and traits that individuals possess. Productive knowledge and skills are typically learned through education and work experience. Character traits matter both for the application of knowledge and skills and for their acquisition in the first place. In the past 100 years—and with enormous social consequences—the economy has transitioned to human capital being the most important resource for individual and social outcomes. Societies responded by emphasizing schooling as the means to develop this resource. In recent decades, however, researchers have discovered that human capital acquisition depends on certain character skills best developed early in life before schooling starts, typically within families. Current research and policy are investigating which combination of early life schooling and improvement in family circumstances can best help people acquire the character skills, and then human capital, needed to flourish. These changes have important implications for the social teachings of the Catholic Church, including moral insights into the distribution of resources, emphasis on the active subject in human work, and the role of civil society in promoting ideas and institutions conducive to an ideal human ecology.     

Water Rights Markets: Social and Legal Considerations

A bstract . Complete reliance on water rights markets for an efficient allocation fails to recognize the impact of currently existing social externalities and legal uncertainties. Specifically, it is possible that water may have a "community value" which may not be captured in the market price of a water right , there by precluding an efficient market solution. Also, there are uncertainties related to the legal/institutional process currently governing the use of western water which have the same implications for the standard notion of economic efficiency. These result primarily from inconsistencies in the application of certain legal principles , and the incomplete definition and assignment of ownership rights to the use of water.     

Two Views of Social Justice: A Catholic/Georgist Dialogue

Sixteen scholars have come together in this issue to examine eight social‐justice themes from the perspectives of Catholic Social Thought and the philosophy of Henry George. The themes they address are natural law, human nature, the nature of work, the nineteenth‐century papal encyclical Rerum novarum, causes of war, immigration, development, and wealth, and neighborhood revitalization. While they sometimes wrangle with each other, their common aspiration is the same as their nineteenth‐century predecessors: to find solutions to the human suffering caused by injustice.     

人权语境下的穷人居住权审视

穷人的居住权,其实质是关于住房的制度安排能否取得利益表达和社会稳定间的平衡.基于"居住权是基本人权"命题时于穷人的生存权意义,必须切实解决穷人的居住这个最基本的民生问题.既不"经济"又不"适用"的经济适用房并不具备对于穷人应有的道德关怀,应着力构建真正适于穷人的廉租房机制.     

都市边缘群体及其社会保障权益

都市边缘群体-农民工已形成了介于农民与工人之间的一个特殊社会阶层.这一阶层由于职业与身份的不一致,在工作及工作以外的诸多方面遭受着不平等的待遇,其基本权益、劳动权益、劳动保护权益、社会保险权益均无保障,极需在完善城镇职工社会保险的同时给以足够的重视:建立规范的用工制度;解决与生产密切相联、与农民工生命相关的工伤保险问题;建立农民的医疗保险和生育保险;考虑农民工的养老保险问题.     

From The Wealth of Nations to Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples): Wealth and Development from the Perspective of the Catholic Social Thought Tradition

Catholic social thought (CST) looks at economic development from the broader framework of authentic human development. It is only by viewing both man's dignity and his social nature that we include the full nature of the human being. In CST wealth is understood based on its role in promoting authentic human development. Wealth is a gift from God, with humans participating in its creation, and its creation, distribution, and its use must be carried out in a manner that respects God's law (justice and charity). Furthermore, man should never place wealth above God or above humans. Those who control wealth have special responsibilities with regards to their use of it; thus the right of private property is always restricted by the social responsibility to use it towards the common good. The goal must be the development of the whole person and all people. Wealth is socially created and thus must be distributed, at least partially, among the entire community. Economic development needs to be grounded in social justice and its two co‐principles, charity and justice. Grounding economic development in the authentic development of the person means placing the people of the poor countries at the center of their development drama, both as the leading actors and as the directors.     

A Little Common Sense: The Ethics of Immigration in Catholic Social Teaching

Modern Catholic social teaching recurs to the idiom of human dignity and human rights. Our moral entitlement to equal respect or consideration, in concert with the ethical ideal of the common good, moreover, justifies preferential treatment for those whose basic rights are most imperiled. Thus states are morally bound to respect and promote the basic human rights of both citizen and resident alien, especially the most vulnerable—and of these, in particular, women and children. Indeed, the duty to protect grounds the subsidiary duty to rescue, for example, through diplomatic initiatives, sanctions, and in extremis, humanitarian intervention in the case of genocide or mass atrocity. Disciples thus see and have compassion, even as compassion becomes a way of seeing. Compassion, then, not only guides them in the fitting application of universal, essential norms, for example, the rights of migrants, but gives rise to existential (personal and ecclesial) imperatives as they come to the aid of wounded humanity.