I have an article published in the Distributist Review this week. If you wander what usury is, what the Church teaches on it, how it is ruining our economy, and how Christians should respond to it, click here!
Christians and Usury
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About the Author: Kevin O'Brien
Kevin O'Brien is the founder and artistic director of the Theater of the Word Incorporated, which tours the world evangelizing through drama. He and his actors appear on several EWTN television programs, with video clips featured on O'Brien's website, www.stgenesius.net. Kevin's autobiography, A Bad Actor's Guide to the Meaning of Life, will be published soon by ACS Press.
When the Distributist Review publishes someone who even gets the basic contours of mainstream economic theory, maybe I’ll begin paying attention. But the writers there prefer to take the easy route by labeling it a “modern folly” and moving on. I love the middle ages as much as the next guy, but you do a disservice to the truth when you fail to understand even the basics of what you are criticizing. I love Dale Ahlquist, for example, but the other day I read an article by him on that website (or at least as much of it as I could endure) which was full of all sorts of pseudo-knowledge and false “facts” that everybody “knows” but which he didn’t even bother to investigate, like the old saw that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. That may happen here and there, now and then, but the overall picture is that there are less and less poor throughout the world. The sober fact is that “the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting richer but at a slower rate.” But something so middle-of-the-road just wouldn’t be as sexy, right?
Anyhow, I don’t mean to say that only specialists can discuss a subject, but it would be nice if people writing about Distributism where not all actors, theologians, or literature professors. Someone with an actual background in economics now and then would be nice. Someone who could discuss even basic terms well, such as opportunity cost, and bring them up in arguments about usury and the like. Look, you can keep writing articles that will impress a small group of well-intentioned Catholics now and then, but if you want to actually mount a critique that has any hope of being taken seriously, you are going to have to at the very least read through a basic economics textbook, and hopefully go on to get a PhD in the subject.
I apologize for the rant, but I’m tired of distributists thinking that they’re defending the truth when in reality they haven’t even bothered to understand what they think they are criticizing. If you care about the truth, inform yourselves, and then attack as you will. But not before then.
Miguel, are you saying that only PhD econ majors should opine about economics? With all due respect, they haven’t gotten us very far. The boon of man’s productivity occurred long before they arrived upon the scene, and will continue long after it is realized that many contributions of that “science” are driven by political opinion. That’s why Wall Street ended up hiring physicists and statisticians, instead of econ majors.
Economics, as a major, has produced some useful material, but when it comes to handling the wealth of nations, we’ve not progressed far from Adam Smith. Kevin’s opinions are as valid as an econ majors, even if he isn’t conversant in the lingo.
Migiel, be soecific. Talk about the issue at hand. In this case, usury. If you believe opportunity cost to be defensible, defend it. Instead of smearing distributists in general, engage the issue at hand.