Abstract
This paper evaluates the rhetoric of the U.S. bishops' pastoral letter on the U.S. economy from two perspectives. Is the letter convincing? Does it conform to the “conversational norms of civilization?” The paper argues that the bishops' letter fails by both standards because it ignores serious research on the U.S. economy, it misstates important facts about the economy, and it sneers at professional economists. The paper concludes that the bishops' letter will not be convincing to well informed readers.
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William S. Reece is Associate Professor of Economics at Loyola College in Maryland and Director of the Loyola Institute for Business and Economic Research. His publications on the economics of charity and other topics have appeared in the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of the American Statistical Association, and elsewhere.
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Reece, W.S. Why is the bishops' letter on the U.S. economy so unconvincing?. J Bus Ethics 8, 553–560 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382931
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382931