Almsgiving Monday 4 – Helping the Poor Stop Being Poor

Last updated on: April 1, 2019 at 7:49 am by Mark Shea

Almsgiving Monday 4 – Helping the Poor Stop Being Poor 2019-04-01T07:49:19-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dom Helder Camara famously remarked, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

G.K. Chesterton remarked on the same reality when he talked about the necessity of a living wage;

An honest man falls in love with an honest woman; he wishes, therefore to marry her, to be the father of her children, to secure her and himself. All systems of government should be tested by whether he can do this. If any system—feudal, servile, or barbaric—does, in fact, give him so large a cabbage-field that he can do it, there is the essence of liberty and justice. If any system—Republican, mercantile, or Eugenist—does, in fact, give him so small a salary that he can’t do it, there is the essence of eternal tyranny and shame.”

~G.K. Chesterton: ‘Illustrated London News,’ March 25, 1911

Some years ago, I wrote a little series on Catholic Social Teaching for the Register. With extreme predictability, my discussion of the Common Good (here and here, copiously documented with a ton of material from biblical, patristic, and magisterial sources) was denounced by a number of combox readers as “socialist”. These libertarianized readers of the Register categorically rejected the idea that we have any responsibility to the common good beyond Charity to the Deserving Poor If We Feel Like It. Oh, and of course, Something Something Abortion. The notion that an employee has the right–or an employer the obligation–to pay a living wage was beyond absurd. And the idea that the state had the duty to ensure a just wage was rejected as monstrously evil. Faith in the invisible hand of the market was absolute with them and belief that owners were immune from the sin of greed and workers were motivated by the sin of envy and it would all work out for the best if we simply returned to the state of laissez faire (the evils of which were what prompted Leo XIII to write Rerum Novarum and the Church to back the labor movement in the first place) was pure and childlike.

Still and all, the right wing lie that we can ignore and support the right wing war on the poor and the right wing zeal for crushing a just wage by shouting “but abortion!” is nearly dead in the rising generation. Every time you read some fresh article by a Boomer griping that “Millennials are Killing X” what you are really reading is fresh documentation that we are crushing Millennials with debt and making it impossible for them to earn enough money to marry and have a family. Businesses are dying because poor people can’t patronize them. And that is because extremely rich people will not pay their workers enough to live on.

Here’s reality–if people cannot afford to marry and raise children, they don’t. Lecturing them about their selfishness while refusing to pay them what they are owed in order to raise a family on a good day’s work is what is known in the tradition as a “sin that cries to heaven for vengeance”.

Conversely, working so that people can make a living wage is simple justice in the eyes of the living God, as well as prolife, since poverty is the Number One abortifacient.

And what is a living wage?

A living wage fulfills four criteria:

Families in general seem to be living at a standard of decency appropriate to their society;
They do so without working undue hours;
They do so without wives being forced to work outside the home or children forced to work inappropriate hours or under inappropriate conditions (if they choose to do so, that’s another story);
They do so without undue reliance on government support or consumer credit.

Given that it is literally impossible for anybody anywhere in the US to live on their own on a minimum wage job and that we have a system of socialism for the rich and wage slavery for the poor (where Evilcorps like Walmart are subsidized by Feds by telling their underpaid workers to go on welfare in order to supply the wages they refuse to pay), it is clear that fighting for a living wage is, in fact, one of the best kinds of almsgiving since it helps people become full participants in the economy and brings them closer to being able to support families. The bullshit response is always to make some appeal to the ‘laws of economics” (a bullshit response made every time workers have sought a just wage for time immemorial). The Catholic response is that the law (including laws of economics) is made for man, not man for the law.

Meanwhile, here in Seattle, we hiked the minimum wage (still not by enough) and we’re doing just fine, thank you. Instead of fretting about how super-zillionaires will do without locking up cash in their vaults, pay workers a just wage and make it possible for the next generation to marry and have kids.

That is, if we are serious about all that stuff we say about marriage and family.

Here is the church’s teaching.

Uncategorized

Almsgiving

Lenten Thoughts

Previous Post

March 30, 2019

Saturdays are better with flaming trombones

Next Post

April 2, 2019 China's *Other* Cardinal

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz