Distributism

Good afternoon,

I wonder how Mondragon in Spain is faring, with all the economic woe in that nation? I think I can research that, today.

Yes, I researched it. The following text is from this link:

http://distributistreview.com/mag/20...gon-revisited/

"Mondragon Revisited
Cooperatives, Economics — Posted by Dr. Race Mathews on October 24, 2011 4:45 AM

In the face of the global financial crisis that has Spain’s unemployment level standing currently at some 22 per cent, the Mondragon co-operatives offer an astonishingly successful alternative to the way we organise business and economies.

Revisiting recently for the fifth time, since the early nineteen-eighties, the great complex of worker-owned manufacturing, retail, agricultural, civil engineering and service cooperatives centred on Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain, it was impossible not to be impressed by the resilience that has enabled them to take their share of economic hits and emerge largely unscathed."

You can go to the link, for more details.

God loves all of you, lurkers, too,
Don

Warrenton et al, not aware you can get free, No Fees, Not Charity AVATAR Symbols to replace your Question Marks? ? ? ? See your SN home: AVATAR on your left side. Guaranteed No Evil like socialism/ libertarianism, anti-founding Fathers associations. JUST CAF!

What a great find this Thread is. I have Quite a few Analyses and Criticisms of the New Top 2% now Earning, Owning the former Ownership, earnings of the Middle and Lower classes, on CAF!
Critiquing totally honestly the Reality of the Tea Party (Totally Unconstutional) and similar New GOP. FEW realize that SSA Itself and Medicare Itself are Still Net PLUS Self Funded, Opposite of the Knowing False Hype. I Need to Publish Significaant Magazine Articles, including Why the Historic U.S.A. traditions have been Ponziied/3rd World denedabnt now USA: Direct Result of Reaganomics Radical 'liberal' and Chaneyomics Radical 'liberal' Reversal of USA traditions, ownership and incomer to the top Few Percent Richest, and Untaxed. Precise opposite of Catholic Traditions and fairness: Social Concern misnomered. Financial Fairness is now also 'obsolete concept, like Morals, Faith. I will soon Question those, Catholicly, as it were. GREAT SITE!.

Hi, Anna,

The Mutant's opening post, December 17, 2010 at the bottom of this page has a link to The Distributive Review, a Catholic magazine about Distributive economics.

Mutant's Jan 17, 2011 post, right before my first post, has a link about a co-op in Spain which I found to be a great read. The link is at the end of his first paragraph.

I have a good friend with several credits in college Economics who has helped me understand that complicated field of endeavor.

God loves you,
Don

God loves you,
Don

Hello,

I'm completely new on this website and just registered. Looking around now at various groups to see what I might be interested in and where I might learn something positive. I saw a program on EWTN about G.K. Chesterton and, on it, the subject of distributism came up last year sometime. I've been wishing to learn more about this ever since. Perhaps I shall through this group. Will be appreciative of your good help.

Anna

Hi, All,

What I like about Prof. Matthews article on the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation, is that from the beginning Fr. Arizmendiarrieta set up the co-op as self-governing and with its own credit union.
In my mind, these two provisions kept the co-op in the workers' hands while filling the Cathetical definition of Distributive economics.
This article has relieved my heart, and I can cleave unhindered closer to our Catholic Church because of it.

God loves all of you,
Don

Onegaishima,

I understand the difficulty with thinking of Distributism on a large scale. Much of it seems to tend toward the smaller scale. This is a simple fact. However, Distributism CAN work in the larger scale. Here is an article on a cooperative corporation that exists today and is very successful. It is called Mondragon.

I don't know how easy it would be to set this up on a large scale in areas where it is not widely accepted. The purpose of The Distributist Review is to open the discussion and get these ideas better understood and (hopefully) accepted enough that we can start to make a difference. In the mean time, I tried to give some practical examples of how to at least start making small changes in this article. Patience and perseverance is what is required. The original distributist movement started around a century ago and the struggle continues today. The economic turmoil Capitalism has brought us at present has started to make people question if there is a better way. We know there is.

Friends, Sorry I haven't responded. Of course, I chose to open this shortly before Christmas and then there were some family issues. Some of you have mentioned John Medaille; he is our Editor in Chief at The Distributist Review. Naturally, I concur with the recommendations to watch his YouTube videos. He also has a very good book on the subject of Distributism called "Toward a Truly Free Market."

Works by GK Chesterton I can recommend are "Economics for Helen" and "What's Wrong With the World. Another good book by Hilaire Belloc is "An Essay on the Restoration of Property." I also personally recommend George O'Brien's "An Essay on Medieval Economic Teaching" and "An Essay on the Economic Effects of the Reformation."

A big problem I see within the Church is the acceptance of certain aspects of Libertarianism by Catholics. I do not say all of Libertarianism, but there is a thought that, because the Church admits its authority doesn't apply to the facts of science, it has no say in the science of economics. However, economics is not a natural science like physics; it is a humane science, and it deals with human interactions. Therefore the Church's authoritative moral teachings do apply to economics. An excellent book I can recommend on this is "The Church and the Libertarian," by Christopher Ferrara.

I read Monsters from The Id. There should be a group/thread on The Deeper Meaning of Horror Movies. Lately I've been watching Bela Lugosi's and Boris Karloff's pictures from The 1930s. Jone's book, "Living Machines" fit in well with Lugosi and Karloff's, "The Black Cat."

I just saw an interview of John Medaille on Young Turks. I liked him. They kind of boil it down to Corporatism (monopoly) versus Distributionism ("free" market). The Free is in quotes, because apparently, there is a debate on what that means. I would guess the difference is between free, in the free from sin sense, versus free in the, I can do whatever I want sense. In other words, something like: moral order versus might makes right.

Also, have read E Michael Jones and he is quite the original thinker. His Monsters from the Id provides an excellent introduction to why horror movies, vampires, the dead and werewolves are so popular all of a sudden. And it's not the reason most "secular" culture watchers think.
I can't get my head around distributist theory on a larger scale. I would really appreciate ideas on how we could implement this on a larger (say city, country wide) basis.