Challenges to living the 'Gospel of work'

CNS has this STORY: Labor Day message sees challenges to living the 'Gospel of work' The USCCB releases its Labor Day address. As chairman of the U.S. Bishop's Committee on Domestic Policy, Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y. issued the statement.

Some passages of the statement cited by CNS echo the inspiring wisdom of JPG's social doctrine. Others parrot the tired socialism-lite advocated by aspiring welfare-statists, whose model has been discredited by Reagan and denounced by JPG. The contradictory messages make the Labor Day address somewhat muddled. This is unfortunate. Laborers play a vital role in society. Economies would grind to a halt without the hard work performed by labor. Not only would production and distribution all but cease, but consumption would drop to drastic levels. Lest anyone accuse me of equating laborers with inhuman processes or means-to-ends, let me remind everyone of a little common sense. We all work to make a living. In doing so, we earn money and buy stuff. That entire process suffers without the participation of laborers.

John Paul the Great noted that labor also provides humanity with a co-creative way of transforming the world and fulfilling the deepest needs of the human heart:

work is a good thing for man. Even though it bears the mark of a bonum arduum, in the terminology of Saint Thomas18, this does not take away the fact that, as such, it is a good thing for man. It is not only good in the sense that it is useful or something to enjoy; it is also good as being something worthy, that is to say, something that corresponds to man's dignity, that expresses this dignity and increases it. If one wishes to define more clearly the ethical meaning of work, it is this truth that one must particularly keep in mind. Work is a good thing for man-a good thing for his humanity-because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfilment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes "more a human being".

As such, labor upholds and expresses the dignity of humanity. Therefore, any unjust working conditions corrupt labor's very essence. Thus, the The U.S. Bishops prophetically call for such justice for all Laborers.

I have no dispute with them here. My concerns are with how they conceptualize the "facts on the ground" of injustice to laborers. The excerps from the address, admittedly limited, cite problems whose premises appear the same tired reasoning that ignores economic reality. They imply solutions can be found in policies that have long been discredited. Rather than propose creative and economically well-grounded means of ensuring justice for laborers, this address utters the same-old inadequite new-dealism:

-- "There is a growing conflict in some local communities, and on Wall Street, about the obligations of large retailers and major employers to their workers in the U.S. and around the world, and the communities they serve."

-- "The minimum wage, last raised in 1997, leaves a full-time worker with two children below the poverty level, while the gap between executive and worker compensation continues to widen dramatically."

-- "In a time of more retirees and longer life spans, discussion about retirement -- what it means and who will pay for it -- begins with a polarized debate about Social Security, but also extends to pensions, savings and taxes."

-- "The reality that many U.S. workers are immigrants too often leads to a search for scapegoats rather than practical responses that recognize both the humanity and contributions of these newcomers to our economy."

"Large retailers and major employers" are often public corporations that issue stock. The largest stockholders of such corporations tend to be institutional share-holders. The most typical of these institutional stock-owners? Various labor unions' retirement funds! Easy ideological divisions between corporations and labor, while fashionable from the 1870s through the 1960s, don't reflect the "facts on the ground." Rather than acknowledge this reality and propose solutions in its light, the Bishops' Labor Day address perpetuates the same out-dated thinking that simply leads to inadequite solutions.

Likewise, the Bishops' lament of the minimum wage ignores the common unintended consequence of minimum wage hikes: loss of jobs. Employers cut back employment when payroll expenses go up as a result. Plus, those laborers of limited skills and experience, who might have secured a job, find themselves without work. Employers hire people with more skill or experience because minimum wage laws demand an artificial floor to wages; they now want to get the most "bang for their buck." Europe's high mandatory minimum wages and salary correlate positively with the double-digit unemployment rates over there. Again, rather than recognize this, and call for greater cooperation between employers and laborers in determining a market wage that's appropriate, they foster the "class warfare" rhetoric that exacerbates the problem.

The Bishops gloss over the complicated debate over Social Security, calling it "polarized." Then they employ a regretable straw-man argument over immigration. In an era when islamo-fascists want to kill americans, gang members from other countries kill anyone that interferes with their business and border states face harsh conditions brought on them by illegal immigration, can the Bishops do no better than to accuse those concerned with the violation of Federal immigration laws as being on a "search for scapegoats?" That's hardly just behavior coming from the nations' Bishops!

Roman Catholic Americans deserve appropriate catechism from our Bishops. We need doctrinal instruction that provides a reliable paradigm for pastoral application. The endorsement of ineffective, and sometimes partisan, solutions to the complex problems that face laborers does not represent either. Send the USCCB bureacracy home! Review Catholic Social Teaching. Consult with the experts in economics, labor, management and policy-making. Then define the principles that need implementation. This approach will help Roman Catholic Americans better deliver justice to all laborers. Do the nations workers deserve less?