The Moral Measure of the Economy.The Moral Measure of the Economy Chuck Collins Chuck Collins (b. 1959) is an author and a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, where he directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good. & Mary Mary, the mother of Jesus Mary, in the Bible, mother of Jesus. Christian tradition reckons her the principal saint, naming her variously the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady, and Mother of God (Gr., theotokos). Her name is the Hebrew Miriam. Wright Orbis ORBIs Orbiting Radio Bearer Ionospheric Satellite (NASA) Books PO Box 308, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0308 9781570756931, $18.00 www.orbisbooks.com Institute for Policy Studies senior scholar Chuck Collins and Just Faith Ministries staff member Mary Wright combine their wisdom in The Moral Measure of the Economy, a guide written especially for Catholics in answer to the growing need for economic justice and a strong moral foundation in today's society. Chapters address "Catholic Teachings on Economic Life", "Global Trade and the Power of Corporations", "Solidarity in Action: Alternatives for a Just Economy", and much more. "As a society, we should not permit private actors, such as corporations, to shift their 'costs' onto the commons ... A company, for example, has the choice of either illegally dumping dumping, selling goods at less than the normal price, usually as exports in international trade. It may be done by a producer, a group of producers, or a nation. polluted pol·lute tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. water into the stream (where we all pay the 'costs'), or cleaning the water, returning it to the stream, and building the extra cost into its product or service. Economists make the distinction here between 'externalizing' the cost--i.e., getting everyone else to pay--and 'internalizing the cost, by incorporating it into the cost of doing business ... Wal-Mart externalizes the costs of its 1.3 million employees by paying them less than a living wage and providing fewer than half of them with health insurance--while encouraging them to enroll in taxpayer-funded health programs." Though The Moral Measure of the Economy is written especially to Catholics, its powerful message about the need for morality and social accountability to provide guidance to economic systems deserves to be heard by readers of all religious backgrounds. A can-do guide to incorporating fundamental human values Human Values is the universal concept that preserves and enhances Homo Sapiens as a species, this applies to every human being on the present universe, anything against this values brings the consequence of a Self Species Extermination Event (SSEE) like hate, racism or war. into one's economic beliefs and actions. |
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