International Associations of the Faithful, Directory - Pontifical Coucils for the Laity. Papal Encyclicals Online. Vox Nova. The Education of E.F. Schumacher by Joseph Pearce. "It's all very well to live simply and grow things and practice crafts... but what about the hundreds of thousands who can't hope to be self-sufficient in property and craft? " This summarizes the complaint by modern critics against "distributism"—the economic philosophy inspired by Catholic social teaching and developed, early last century, by Catholic thinkers such as G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc. According to distributism, property should be spread widely, so that people can earn a living without having to rely on the state (socialism) or a small number of individuals (capitalism).
According to the pessimistic view of critics, small-scale economies are fine in principle, but are no longer practical. Such questions were central to the philosophical grappling of Dr. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful, subtitled 'a study of economics as if people mattered', was published in 1973 to immediate acclaim and became an international best-seller. 'What an array of divergent problems! ' Papal Encyclicals Online. Catholic Cuisine.
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