God's Preferential Option for...

Business?

That seems to be what the GOP mainstream thinks, and their presidential candidates too (save one, of course). They act like God has a preference for business, and that whatever is good for business is good for the country, and therefore God-approved. (since of course, God wants to bless America, and a booming economy is where all our blessings come from, right?)

Oops. I don't think so. Merchants are often castigated in the Bible for taking advantage of people through dishonesty, and for getting rich at the expense of their workers.

God does have a preferential option, all right. It's not for business, though.. it's for the poor. Catholic Social Teaching has it right, on this score and many others. And the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged President Obama and Congress to "put the needs of the poor first" when allocating scarce resources, especially in the face of budget cuts in order to reduce the national debt.

And yet all I hear, from both sides of the aisle and the White House is how to create jobs. I suppose the idea is that with more jobs, there will be a greater level of prosperity across the board, so more people will be lifted from poverty. Reagan argued for this idea, that a rising tide floats all boats. But Johnson's War on Poverty (as part of his "Great Society" concept) actually directed government resources toward the most needy and vulnerable in society. I'm not sure the Reagan Revolution ever got prosperity to the most impoverished among us like LBJ did. And yet, Johnson committed us to the War in Vietnam and grew the military/industrial complex during the Cold War, too, so.. were we better off under his leadership, despite helping the poor? How about after we "reformed" welfare under Clinton? Are we all better off now?

Ugh. It's a mess when government tries to make things better. They never seem to get it right. They over-regulate in one place and under-regulate in others. They borrow in order to keep overspending, and then spend it on the wrong things. We tell them to reduce spending, and then they cut out the wrong stuff. But we never seem to want to stop them from trying. The next big solution is right around the corner after the next election. Yeah right.