Mar 17 2009
Is Capitalism the new Pharaoh/Egypt of Exodus?
Yes, it is a weird analogy, but here is why I am saying this. I am currently reading The Church and the Land by Fr. Vincent McNabb. In there he equates employees in the Capitalist System (especially the industrial complex) to the conditions of the Israelites in Ancient Egypt around the time of Exodus. Mind you, he is writing this in the 1920’s
While I can see living and working conditions at the time he is writing this book to be very similar allegorically, I also see where it can be applied today. With the recent economic downturn, it seem the employers (Pharaoh) are making employees (Israelites) do more with less resources (working more hours to make up for less manpower).
Yes, living conditions have improved, but at what cost. We are (wage) slaves to companies who know we need them for our livelihood.
Global Capitalism has only made this worse since more and more power is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. I can hear it now “but we can own stock in those companies”. Yes, we can, however the real power is resides with the few top shareholders, many of which are the executives of the company in question. This is not real ownership. Pope Leo XIII wrote in Rerum Novarum:
The law, therefore, should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the people to become owners.
Does this mean abandoning the current global capitalistic system. Yes it does, but not for Socialism which is the main competing economic model these days (and makes the State equivalent to Pharaoh). Distributism (of which Fr. McNabb was one) provides a solution and that is the breakup up of the Global Capitalist Economic model and return ownership and means of production back to local (i.e. family) level.
This should be our Exodus, but who will be our Moses?
In answer to your question “who will be our Moses?”
I think that will become known as local projects begin to emerge in the public eye. The biggest obstacle is the barriers to entry like; laws, regulations, licenses & permits, etc. (which continues to grow).
I just watched a video last night about a student that wanted to start a mini farmers market on her university campus, and she was flabbergasted by the bureaucratic hoops she had to jump through.
I am torn between putting up with this just to get something going and outright overt civil disobedience to thumb my nose at (and poke the eye of) the system.
I am torn between John Wallace (Braveheart) and St Joseph.