Archive for Category: "Guilds"
The Guild System
Every kind of good would flow from the re-establishment of the Guild, and without the re-establishment of the Guild the effort to maintain well-distributed property, even if we had already achieved that good distribution, would be vain.
Distributism and the Health Care System
No system of reform currently on the table addresses either the supply or the institutional problems. If costs are brought under control by market forces, and the institutional problem is solved by the guild, then the problem of universal care will turn out to be a relatively easy one.
Catholic Illustrator’s Guild
It our pleasure and honor to introduce our readers to The Catholic Illustrator’s Guild. May the 21st century spark new artists following in the footsteps of Bl. Fra Angelico.
The Vocational Group
If one has enough for a reasonable and comfortable human existence, then it is not true freedom to be able to acquire more, especially if that acquisition involves hurting others economically or socially, by taking over their markets, driving them out of business, closing factories, relocating workers and breaking up communities and families.
Property
The idea of the Guild has almost died out because the anarchy and greed of the modern world has destroyed the thing, but there is nothing to prevent its being restored.
Capitalist Monopolies vs Distributist Guilds
Capitalists claim that the power of the guild over local business will lower quality, raise prices, and generally be bad for everyone. Considering that this is precisely what has happened under capitalist monopolies, let’s consider how well those claims stand up.
Distributism: Economics as if People Mattered
According to Belloc, it was King Henry’s confiscation of the monastery lands in England, and his action of parceling them out among his wealthy supporters, which marked the beginning of the transformation of England from a nation in which property, the land, and the means of production were widely distributed, to one in which a small number of families control increasingly greater shares of the land.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
How big a town or city would we need for a guild to develop to meet the need for regulation? And how could we guarantee that they don’t act like a monopolist? Who will regulate the regulators?
A Parallel Economy
Secondary goods are those which are meant to satisfy some want or whim of man, but are not essential as are primary goods. By providing for the basic needs, or at least as many as possible, our community would advance towards the self-sufficiency which is the mark of all true societies.