The Catholic Culture Podcast: 163 – Reconciling Distributism and Economics

Jul 24, 2023

Distributism, the social-political-economic philosophy advanced
by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc under the influence of
Catholic social teaching, offers intriguing ways of rethinking the
modern social-political-economic order. But distributists have
often been found lacking in serious practical plans to bring about
their ideal social order, and in the economic fallacies they commit
when critiquing other schools of thought.

Distributists and economists have often seemed to be natural
enemies. As an economist, Alexander W. Salter is not willing to
embrace many distributists’ skepticism that there can such a thing
as economic science. But he also believes it would be a mistake to
neglect the powerful social vision of Chesterton and Belloc on
account of their shortcomings in economic theory. He joins the
podcast to discuss his new book, The Political Economy of
Distributism, in which he argues that a combination of
distributist social philosophy and modern price theory can help us
to achieve the much-discussed goal of “common good capitalism”.

The
Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the
Common Good
https://www.cuapress.org/9780813236810/the-political-economy-of-distributism/

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