Episode 55: Distributism - Interview with Alexander W. Salter

Five Books for Catholics

The recommended books for this episode are:

1. The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc
2. An Essay on the Restoration of Property by Hilaire Belloc
3. An Outline of Sanity by G.K. Chesterton
4. A Humane Economy by Wilhelm Röpke
5. The Economics of the Free Society by Wilhelm Röpke

Five Books for Catholics may receive a commission from qualifying purchases made using the affiliate links to the books listed.

Distributism is an economic theory that advocates for the widespread ownership of the world’s productive assets, rather than their concentration in the hands of a few. It was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, based on Catholic social teaching principles, especially Pope Leo XIII’s teachings in his encyclical Rerum novarum (1891) and Pope Pius XI in Quadragesimo anno (1931). The theory asserts that the means of production should be owned by as many people as possible, rather than being controlled by a small number of wealthy individuals or corporations. The idea is to create a more equitable society where wealth is distributed more evenly, and people have greater control over their own lives.

In this interview, Alexander W. Salter discusses distributism and and his pick of books on the subject.

Alexander W. Salter is the Georgie G. Snyder Associate Professor of Economics in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University, the Comparative Economics Research Fellow at TTU's Free Market Institute, and an associate editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise. Additionally, he is a Sound Money Project senior fellow and a Young Voices senior contributor.

He is the author of, The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good (Catholic University of America Press, 2023), The Spirit of '76: Libertarianism and American Renewal (American Institute for Economic Research, 2023). He is co-author of Money and the Rule of Law: Generality and Predictability in Monetary Institutions​ (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and The Medieval Constitution of Liberty: Political Foundations of Liberalism in the West (University of Michigan Press, 2023).

Read the interview at www.fivebooksforcatholics.com/distributism/

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