True and False Capitalism: A Catholic Analysis
| Authors | Woodbury, Austin Maloney, S.M., 1899-1979 Wagner, Christian B. |
| Publisher | Scholastic Answers Press |
| Published | 07 set 2022 |
| Date | 08 ott 2022 |
| Languages | eng |
| Identifiers | url: https://www.austinwoodbury.com/, uri: https://www.christianbwagner.com/, Amazon.com |
Description
one of the best analyses I've seen of this; it's very short, only a few dozen pages, from his lecture notes.
His definition of capitalism (ref:6.2): "capitalism is nothing else than the name for the act of investment."
He doesn't use the word "usury" but he distinguishes 2 types of capitalism:
- natural capitalism (investing in a productive good)
- spurious capitalism (investing in order to impede production; e.g., a competitor buying his competition in order to form a monopoly [à la Bill Gates's / Microsoft's "Embrace-Extend-Extinguish"; cf. Controligarchs])
Usury falls under "spurious capitalism" ∵ to buy what doesn't exist is not productive, is sterile. Fr. Woodbury also mentions that "spurious capitalism" leads to inflation.
Fr. Woodbury was a student at the Angelicum of the great Fr. Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., and a great popularizer of St. Thomas in Australia, where he gave regular public lectures to audiences of hundreds of laymen. I wouldn't be surprised if John Lane's father attended them. Woodbury died in 1979.