Michael Knowles

It is a major theological and historical misunderstanding that would lead anyone to say that.

Now, the point that Tucker's guest could have made that is worth pointing out is that there are problems with capitalism too.

It's not that we say Christianity is not socialist, therefore it is entirely capitalist.

That is not the case.

There is an important aspect of capitalism for Christianity.

You see this in the writings of Pope Leo XIII.

You see this reaffirmed by John Paul II in Centesimus Annus on the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum.

Capitalism, which is just to say private property and markets, can be a good thing.

John Paul II said that free markets are the most efficient way to allocate goods around society.

And Pope Leo XIII went further to say that people have a right to their private property.

The socialists and the communists say you have no right whatsoever to your private property.

Leo XIII says, no, you do have a right to private property.

However, this is the crucial part.

It is not an absolute right because of something that Christians call the universal destination of goods.

That is to say that created goods are for, ultimately, humanity.

However, it is important as a matter of dignity, as a matter of the efficient allocation of resources, as a matter of functioning societies that we have private property.

But it's a conditional right.

It's conditioned on the notion that there is, in fact, a universal destination of goods.

So what we would say is not three cheers for capitalism.

We would say two cheers for capitalism.