Capitalism and religion

The latest edition of Commonweal has an article on capitalism and religion which notes:

When laissez-faire economists believe in God, they are usually certain that he is one of them. The invisible hand of the market is, they think, also the hand of Divine Providence, which anoints and protects those who manage to provide for themselves.
. . .
The Catholic Church has always taught that the proper alternative to bad government is good government. Sometimes this means less government, sometimes more. In Vatican II’s Gaudium et spes we read that “political authority...must always be exercised within the limits of the moral order and dedicated toward the common good.... The complex circumstances of our day make it necessary for the public authority to intervene more often in social, economic, and cultural matters.” According to the church, negative freedom alone is insufficient. A government that refrains from mistreating its own citizens but makes little effort to keep them from mistreating each other-or to keep their pursuit of conflicting goals from leading to injustice-is not doing its job.

In light of the current fiscal picture in New York and the rest of the nation (and the world) Albany Catholic highly recommends you read the rest of this article.