First, one of the things that has gone very wrong in recent years has been the widening gap between the very rich and everyone else. That the top 2 percent of Americans should control 90 percent of the wealth and have incomes sometimes 400 times more than that of other workers is scandalous and wrong. This mirrors the 1920s, the age of the robber barons, whose profligacy led to the Great Depression. Although the Church has spoken much about this gap, US policies have allowed it to widen, even encouraged it. We have disregarded the regulatory agencies put in place to protect the most vulnerable in our society from the greediest, tax breaks have benefited principally the wealthy, and the practice of paying CEOs enormous salaries while the salaries of workers have barely budged in the last twenty years are only a few examples of what has gone wrong.

The return of the laissez-faire mantra to public discourse—which claims business should be free of encumbrance from government—overlooks the fact that the STC has been critical of precisely this aspect of capitalism. The capitalist system is a great tool for producing wealth; it is a very bad tool for distributing that wealth fairly. It allows those who possess wealth to make more and prevents those without it from rising much above where they are. It is at root an unjust system. It places capital over labor, that is, money over those who do the work. Only the government can step in to ameliorate this injustice.

Christian Tradition challenges us to see all people as our sisters and brothers and to recognize the Creator’s intention that the goods of the earth be available to all. As the Second Vatican Council put it: “Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, and human dignity” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World [Gaudium et Spes], 29). When some take for themselves an inordinate measure of goods while others live in poverty or great need, the society is unjust. We have reached this reality.

In addition, we as Americans have a false understanding of private property. We have come to see it as an absolute right. The STC does not see it this way. Pope Paul VI argued for the right of private property, but not the absolute right. “The right to private property is not absolute and unconditional. No one may appropriate surplus goods solely for his own private use when others lack the bare necessities of life” (On the Development of Peoples [Populorum Progressio], 23). The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World gives the principle by which private property is to be understood: “By its nature private property has a social dimension which is based on the law of common destination of earthly goods” (71).

In other words, private property is secondary to the destination of earthly goods for the good of all. This means that eminent domain is a legitimate maneuver when the good of society demands it. It also means taxation is legitimate when it is needed to care for the common good, and in particular a progressive income tax, which demands more from those who have more. “In a system of taxation based on justice and equity it is fundamental that the burdens be proportioned to the capacity of the people contributing (On Christianity and Social Progress [Mater et Magistra], 132).