The Catholic - Labor Network

Documents & Articles which concern Catholic and Labor Issues Papal Social Encyclicals Other Catholic Social Teachings Msgr. George Higgins Catholic Worker Connection General Articles of Interest  Home Page  The Catholic-Labor Network E-Mail List  The Catholic-Labor Network is dependent on interested persons sharing their activities struggles, victories and prayers with other like minded men and women of faith. We strongly invite all those who visit this page, and who share  a common interest in issues effecting the Catholic Church and the Labor Movement to subscribe.  Occasionally, notices will be sent when this page is updated.  When important events happen, we will pass on the information through the e-mail list, and most of all, the e-mail list is a means by which we can pray and support each other. Some Catholic and Labor Links The Holy See  The National Conference of Catholic Bishops  Human Rights for Workers  The Catholic Social Doctrine Page  The Houston Catholic Worker  Catholic Online  National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice  The Seamless Garment Network  The International Labour Organization  The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations  The International Transport Workers Federation Union Web

A Worthy Nobel Winner in Economics By Msgr. George G. Higgins January 4, 1999  Professor Amartya Sen, a native of India, won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Science for work on human rights, poverty and inequality, and for what the Royal Swedish Academy of Science said had "restored an ethical dimension to the discussion of vital economic problems.''  It tells us something about the current state of the economics profession that Sen's selection because of his emphasis on ethical norms and values came as a shock and severe disappointment to some of his peers and was so exceptional that it was treated as headline news in the American press.  As recently as 10 years ago a member of the Nobel Committee predicted that Sen never would get the prize because, among other reasons, his unfashionable concern with ethics seemed out of step with the values-free, specialized approach that the economics profession prizes. But times have changed -- or at least have begun to change.  Anyone who keeps up with the literature in this arcane discipline will recognize that Sen's emphasis on ethical values is the rare exception. Indeed it is so exceptional and, among conservative economists, so unwelcome that an editorial-page writer for the Wall Street Journal demeaned himself in an op-ed column ("The Wrong Economist Won'') by protesting Sen's selection for the Nobel Prize.  The New York Times, on the other hand, found Sen's selection "gratifying.'' So do I. Two American economists -- Robert Pollin and Stephanie Luce -- have just published an excellent book which, like Sen's writings, brings an ethical dimension to the discussion of a vital economic problem. The book is "The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy'' (New Press, 1998).  With almost one-third of all working people in the United States today earning wages below the official poverty line, community coalitions around the country have responded by proposing municipal "living-wage'' ordinances. Essentially a legislative initiative requiring companies that receive government contracts to pay their workers decent wages and reasonable benefits, the first local living-wage campaign was waged and won in Baltimore in 1994.  Since then, living wage laws have been passed in Boston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York and Portland, Ore. Similar initiatives are being considered in many other cities. The "Living Wage'' is the first book to consider the specifics of these local living-wage proposals. How many working families will benefit? How much will these programs cost, and who will pay for them? The authors show how living-wage proposals are affordable for both cities and employers, and argue that they can play an important role in reversing the 25-year decline in wages experienced by most working people in America.  The authors of this important new book point out that religious groups are prominently represented in the rapidly growing living-wage movement, a movement economist Robert Kutner aptly described as the most interesting and underreported grass-roots enterprise since the Civil Rights Movement.  Catholic participants in the movement are keeping alive a proud tradition started almost a century ago by the late Msgr. John A. Ryan , who to this day is still regarded as the most distinguished American Catholic expert in the social ethics field. Msgr. Ryan's 1906 book, "The Living Wage,'' is still required reading to counter the writings of those who, incredibly, argue that wages must be determined solely by the so-called laws of economics. The selection of Sen as this year's Nobel Prize winner in economics provides some slight reason to hope that, as time goes on, the profession as a whole will come to its senses on this point.   Papal Social Encyclicals   Other Catholic Social Teachings General Articles of Interest  Catholic Worker Connection Msgr. George Higgins  Home Page E-Mail: Fr. Sinclair Oubre