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Article: Does socialism or free enterprise best serve the common good?(Economics)
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN CHAPTER 21 of St. Matthew's Gospel, Jesus proposes a moral dilemma in the form of a parable: A man asks his two sons to work for him in his vineyard. The first son declines, but later ends up going. The second son tells his father be will go, but never does. "Who," Jesus asks, "did the will of his father?" Although I am loath to argue that Jesus' point was an economic one, we nonetheless derive from it a moral lesson with which to evaluate economic systems in terms of achieving the common good. Modern history presents us with two divergent models of economic arrangement: socialism and capitalism. One of these appears preoccupied with the common good and social ...