Duesterberg writes, “Absent a dynamic manufacturing sector, the U.S. economy will not wither and die, but it will grow much less rapidly, have trouble increasing residents’ standard of living, be less able to meet the work aspirations of a diverse population and maintain its military superiority.”
Pope Leo XIII reminded the world of Catholic views regarding the moral implications of work and capital when wrote Rerum Novarum. The displacement of US workers for foreign labor in countries that are undeveloped (ie no schools, highways, utilities, social security, and no modern medicine) is immoral when US jobs lost cannot be replaced in the US. Instantly turning Detroit’s unemployed autoworkers into software engineers and accountants in the new ‘service economy’ – as corporate ‘free traders’ have stated ‘should’ happen – will never happen. An impending unemployement disaster is more likely as government taxes and regulations become more stifling and hostile to small businesses, especially in Illinois, the manufacturing declines continue.
We don’t normally post ‘business’ stories, but all Catholics in Illinois need to be aware of the moral implications of ‘free trade’ and the real effect it will have on their children’s future safety and standard’s of living. Leo XIII’s defense of workers’ rights is not socialist, as some have suggested, but very Catholic in its emphasis on human dignity, the value of work, at the fact that all men – employers and employeed – must submit themselves to decent treatment of each other according to the immutable law of God, which is to love thy neighbor, not maximize the profit margin obtained from the sweat of his brow…