I see the Catholic Church has come out against capitalism. In the list of new sins just added to the seven deadlies there is this one: 'the excessive accumulation of wealth by a few'. One might say, I suppose, that this just makes sinners of the excessive accumulators rather than of capitalism as such. A system doesn't sin; it's just a set of rules, constraints, structures. But if it encourages individuals in the excessive accumulation of wealth, and if that system has nowhere existed without being marked by the phenomenon of excessive accumulation, and if the latter is a sin, then even though this doesn't acquit the individual sinners of their sins, it does suggest that the rules might be in need of amendment.
In related news John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, is about to say that 'Labour should celebrate "huge salaries" in Britain'. He has an interesting argument for this:
Rather than questioning whether huge salaries are morally justified, we should celebrate the fact that people can be enormously successful in this country.I'm hoping that what he means is that huge salaries are morally justified because [something or other], and not that one doesn't need to bother with moral justification. Not bothering with it could be put to some fanciful and even pernicious uses.