Posted on 09/04/2015 8:34:52 AM PDT by pinochet
Is Catholicism responsible for the fact that Mexico is a third world hell hole? The GDP per capita in Argentina is only one-third of the GDP per capita of America and Canada, despite the fact that Argentina has a larger percentage of Whites than America and Canada. Portugal and Spain are among the poorest West European nations in terms of GDP per capita. Is this caused by Catholicism, or is it caused by other problems?
No. Pinochet-era and post-Pinochet Chile and pre-Peron Argentina being counter-examples.
The global elites WANT global poverty — and they don’t care how they get it.
NOPE.. it’s the importation of proto democrats (from where ever) that keeps AMerica screwed up..
Democrats DESPISE America.. always have..
The problem in Latin America is the Latin Americans tend to put fascist / socialist dictators in power with great regularity.
Is such a thing even possible?
But that wouldn't grind anybody's denominational axe ... so we'll ignore it.
Actually, at least as far as Argentina, you can probably blame the influence of Peron. Back in the early part of the 20th Century, Argentina was actually pretty prosperous, even buying American cars that many Americans couldn’t afford. All that changed with the rise of Juan Peron. He was a paternalistic fascist who beggared a once prosperous nation to build a cult of personality for himself. From what I heard from the authors of Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot. The authors make the claim that aspects of Spanish rule-such as opposition to the Enlightenment, Church-State separation, and mercantilism laid the seeds for Latin America’s dysfunction.
Got your mind already made up much?
At the same time, this need to promote human ingenuity may also explain why these wealthy countries lose their sense of place with respect to God and man.
Wearing the tinfoil cap again?
Socialism in Latin America is a function of their traditional political systems - kings running top-down feudal structures. This “strong man” tradition plays well for leftists. For the Spanish or French king of old, having a state religion, which they controlled, was an important part of their power base.
If anything, Catholicism, and its structure and internal organization concept of “subsidiarity” is truly conservative or even libertarian in nature.
It is not catholiciism per se, perhaps it is the Vatican power sharing plan?
1. The Catholic Churches there had all the usual gold trappings while their “parishioners” were dirt poor.
and
2. When he arrived in a town the Priest led the locals to try and drive him out. ( I guess competition was bad for "business.")
Got your mind already made up much?
I have not yet made up my mind on the issue. According to the Catholic Social Scientist, Father Greeley, White American Catholics have higher incomes than White Protestants. But in Canada, Catholic French Canadians have lower incomes than Protestant British Canadians.
Obviously, American Catholics have done a better job than American Protestants in adopting the Protestant work ethic. Catholicism does not automatically equal poverty in all circumstances.
Pope Che has nothing but contempt for free market capitalism and has in fact called it the dung of the devil. Meanwhile Pope Che never has anything negative to about socialism. So yes, I do detect a strong hostility towards capitalism at the highest levels of the Church hierarchy. As a Catholic I am thoroughly disgusted. Capitalism has lifted countless millions of people out of poverty. It should be enthusiastically embraced by the Church, not condemned as the current pope often does.
No, it’s not Catholicism, it’s the corrupt governments of those countries. Keep studying.
And as I recall Czechoslovakia had an automobile industry in the interwar years and made some fine cars.
My list of economic advantages:
1) Economic freedom
2) Rule of law/property rights
3) Importance given to intellectual improvement
4) Natural resources
This thread is awesome. /s
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