Original text by Pope Leo XIII
Summary by The Acolytes of the Theotokos
About this text: This is a highly simplified summary of Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII. It is designed to offer the general public a Christian alternative to both Capitalism and Socialism. This summary does not contain much of content of the original text, leaving out much, and focusing on a few key political ideas. Readers are encouraged to read the original text, which has a far broader scope, in its entirety at the below link
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THE PROBLEM
1. Techno-capitalism has deprived man of his due dignity
Men are made in the image of God and have Inherent Human Dignity. They are not collections of atoms or statistics on a spreadsheet. Anything that does violence to this inherent, immutable dignity is a grave sin.
2. Man has been deprived of dignity in the following ways:
- Insufficient wages (45)
- Treating men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, valued solely for their labor (20)
- Unjust and unhealthy working conditions that tax working people beyond their strength (42)
- Neglect of the Common Good, subordinating it to the good of the Capitalist alone (34)
- Denial of the right to private property (society of renters) (5)
THE SOLUTION
1. We must demand, as a GOD-GIVEN RIGHT FOR ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS, a Living Wage.
This Living Wage MUST be enough to own private property and support a family (44-46) on the earnings of a single income (13).
2. We MUST form unions and worker organizations based on the principles of Inherent Human Dignity and right to a Living Wage(54).
These unions and organizations must therefore be essentially spiritual/religious in nature, rather than merely political. They MUST NOT serve ulterior political motives.
3. The State MUST ACT as an arbiter between Capital and Labor to create a compromise that benefits both parties and the Common Good of society.
The State must not interfere in the ability of Capital to remain productive, nor should it regulate the private lives of citizens (35-36). Wages can be regulated by the government, rather than simply being any wage that is determined by the “free market” (43).
4. Private property should be distributed as widely as possible NOT abolished.
Men are rational actors. Unlike animals, they work not simply to fill their bellies for the present moment, but in order to provide for themselves in the future as well.
Private property such as land and investments, allow men to escape a life of toil lived paycheck-to-paycheck and instead to cultivate these investments into a permanent means of sustinence, as well as an asset to pass on as an inheretence.
Both a Capitalist “renters society” in which all but the top 1% of people own nothing and must rent from the small number that own everything, and a socialist society in which private property is abolished, deprive men of the ability to cultivate private property using their rational and other faculties, causing alienation and helplessness (5-10, 15).
5. Class Cooperation NOT Class Conflict.
Marxism views the Capitalist and working classes as being in natural enmity with each other. This causes an unending cycle of social conflict, rather than social harmony.
It is also incorrect. When the classes are operating according to their proper, natural roles, they in fact have a symbiotic relationship. Valuable goods are produced from raw materials through labor, causing society and all of its members who partake in the fruits of this labor to become materially wealthy (19-20).
The problem is when the State favors one class over another, when in fact it should work to facilitate a mutually beneficial relationship between Labor and Capital.