Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

lations of the Creator as he manifests them eternally and immutably and uninterruptedly in his
creation and if in their place he takes human regulations as his guiding rule.“ 12
The notion that the natural interests and inclinations of man agree most exactly with the interests
of the community as a whole (Adam Smith) springs from the Enlightenment theology of
deism. The individual, wrote Adam Smith, „intends only his own gain, and he is in this...led
by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention“; it can therefore be
said of us that we are co-workers of the divinity and that, insofar as it lies in our power, we
bring the plans of providence closer to their realization. 13 Along the same lines, Johann
Heinrich von Thünen (l783-l850) thought in the nineteenth century that, while he fancies „he
is only pursuing his own advantage,“ man is „a tool in the hand of a higher power“ and is
working, „often unbeknown to him, on a great and artificial edifice.“ 14
e) Competition is what steers the order of the economy.
The numinous „invisible hand of God“ avails itself of a simple means, competition, in the
transformation of egoism into altruism. Just as self-interest is the motive force of the economy,
so competition is what steers its order and leads the manifold individual interests to
harmony and the common good. „Every man,“ we read in Adam Smith, „as long as he does
not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his competition
with those of any other man.“ Since competition is the guarantor of the common good,
the lust for subsidies on the part of many merchants who run after the state in order to obtain
monopoly privileges must be combated. The exclusion of competition does indeed bring advantages
to the interested parties, but is nevertheless always against the interests of the community
as a whole. 15
2. Capitalistic Reality.
The intellectual fathers of economic liberalism were anything but unscrupulous exploiters.
Seldom have such great, almost pseudo-theological hopes been placed on the economy as at
the beginning of the industrial age. With touching optimism, the old liberals believed that,
after the unfettering of free competition, a happy age marked by universal prosperity and
brotherhood would now begin for all strata of the population. The pre-established harmony of
the market would automatically lead to the realization of social justice. The industrial age has
in fact achieved tremendous things in the field of economics. The market and competition
have their dynamics. Supported by the natural sciences and enticed by the new possibilities of
free competition, man has systematically laid hold of the forces of nature, which had lain hidden
thus far. He has exorcised them into physical, chemical, and biological technology,
which, in a tempestuous development, has become the foundation of the modern economy and
the skeleton of our civilization. One invention and discovery followed upon another. The average
life expectancy of people rose from thirty-five to seventy years of age. And the living
standard of even the lower strata of the population increased considerably.
Nevertheless, the era of economic liberalism led to a dangerous social discontent and provoked
the ‘social question’. The propertyless and, at first, unionized workers could employ no
property, but only their manpower in the competition. „Possession is nine-tenths of the law,“
says the proverb. It is surprising that Adam Smith himself clearly referred to this initial inequality
in a stirring passage of his main work. Of the struggle between workers and entrepreneurs,
he writes: „It is not, however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon
all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into a compliance
with their terms....In all such disputes the masters can hold out much longer....Though
12 Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs (Berlin, 1889), 3f and 277.
13 Op. cit., bk. 4, chap. 2.
14 Der isolierte Staat, I:327.
15 Op. cit., bk. 4, chap. 7.
97