...Shankman labeled his economic ideology “distributionist.” He believes we should divide the wealth of America across the population “so that everyone can buy a house,” feed and support themselves, starting over from there based upon some concept modeled somewhat after Catholic charity.
Wiki has a pretty readable take on Distributism:
Essentially, distributism distinguishes itself by its distribution of property (not to be confused with redistribution of capital that would be carried out by most socialist plans of governance). While socialism allows no individuals to own productive property (it all being under state, community, or workers' control), distributism itself seeks to ensure that most people will become owners of productive property. As Belloc stated, the distributive state (that is, the state which has implemented distributism) contains "an agglomeration of families of varying wealth, but by far the greater number of owners of the means of production."[4] This broader distribution does not extend to all property, but only to productive property; that is, that property which produces wealth, namely, the things needed for man to survive. It includes land, tools, etc.[5]
Distributism has often been described as a "third way," in opposition to both socialism and capitalism. Thomas Storck argues that "both socialism and capitalism are products of the European Enlightenment and are thus modernizing and anti-traditional forces. In contrast, distributism seeks to subordinate economic activity to human life as a whole, to our spiritual life, our intellectual life, our family life""....associated with Catholic charity"?? Not really. It has to do with Catholic social thinking, not 'charity.'
Distributism is idealistic. It's not un-doable, but it would be exceedingly difficult to set up and maintain for a number of reasons which should be obvious from the Wiki summary above.
Having said that, it's noteworthy that the US is not a pure-capitalist society and hasn't been since ~1900. What GKC and Belloc did NOT like was pure capitalism--for good reason--but that's no longer germane.
HT: McCain
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"The problem with capitalism is not too many capitalists, but not enough capitalists" - GKC
Some of libertarian thinking hold the belief that a "free market" means an unregulated market which is the furthest thing from the truth. I am more for intelligent governance than limited governance, but it seems that both phrases are oxymora these days.
Wasn't that the whole point of bringing Michael Moore in though? To bring in someone who could rile up support to guillotine all citizens with wealth for their "crime" and take all their money(to be controlled by the Safety Commission)? The French Revolution in Wisconsin except instead of Catholicism to exterminate, just change the target to prosperity?
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