Nuns on the bus promote social justice

B. Cachia

Jun 30th 2012, 17:34

Christ was not a socialist, Charles. He never asked people to give away their neighbour's wealth, only their own. Christianity is about helping others. Socialism is about forced redistribution. They do not bear even the slightest resemblance to each other.

Charles Grixti

Jul 1st 2012, 09:11

@B. Cachia

Yes, I agree, Christ was not Socialist enough, but then again he is seen as filtered through the eyes of the Roman Empire and its descendant.


First and foremost, Christ was a Jew and he was well-versed in Torah, where you will find the first socialist teachings, including redistribution of wealth to the widows and orphans and the strangers in your midst. And by the way, the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few, has never been loosened other then through forced legislation, primarily through tax on profits (which modern corporations have successfully fought against tooth and nail and now there are multi-billion dollar corporation who pay zero in income tax, among other incentives and perks in the form of bailouts or stimulus packages etc).

The original thesis for Capitalism, especially if you read Adam Smith, the champion of Capitalism and author of the "Wealth of Nations" (Smith by the way was an ethicist by profession) and his vision was that while capitalism creates the wealth, governments' job was there to make sure that this wealth is distributed throughout the whole of society. The owners of capital would still be very wealthy but they could not keep all of their wealth. This of course has been glossed over now and economist chose to ignore certain passages from both Smith and David Ricardo when promoting the new virulent Capitalism that leaves nothing in its wake in its quest for ever increasing profits and greed for ever more riches. The excess of the top always translates into scarcity for those on the bottom. The new Capitalist system is a siphoning of the wealth from the lower classes to the top richest percent.

What is even worse is that through their sheer power and influence, this new form of Capitalism owns governments, which are now being run along the lines of companies, that is if it costs too much, close it, downsize it, never mind who suffers. Gone are the moral, ethical and social components that should make up a benevolent State and Government. One can see this happening with regards to health, education and pensions. The moral and ethical safeguards are slowly but steadily being removed in many countries who have adopted a capitalist-style of government. The EU and the IMF in particular are big supporters and promoters of this type of conscienceless type of government.

Emma Xerri

Jul 1st 2012, 15:48

@B Cachia

What do you mean Christ was not Socialist? What about the Sermon on the Mount and the feeding of the multitutude with bread and fish? Who else but a socialist would provide free food for all.

PS: And by Socialist we do not mean the corrupted form that became Communism and identified with Stalin - which is what the Right would like everyone to believe.

B. Cachia

Jul 2nd 2012, 23:19

@ Emma Xerri: The difference between Christ's teaching and that of socialism is primarily that the former is voluntary. Socialism in most of its forms involves the more or less forced redistribution of wealth. Even taxes (let alone expropriation) are not exactly voluntary and optional.

@ Charles Grixti: As you know, Smith and Ricardo represent only a primitive basis for modern economics. They share with Marx one huge misconception, which is the labour theory of value, which was replaced a long time ago by the marginal utility theory of value, on which modern microeconomics is based. Many of their political arguments were based on this misconception that an object's value is derived from the labour used to produce it (and hence, by implication, the profits of the capitalist are a form of theft, which needs to be partially remedied through redistributive measures).

@ both: Thanks for an intelligent conversation on serious subjects, a rarity these days!