“I can turn to God and away from inordinate attachments to things, or I can turn to things and turn my back on God.” I can also seek God through the ordinary material realities of life. That is called the sanctification of ordinary work, part of the universal call to holiness. I know plenty of Catholic families that could put “that $5MM bonus” to very good use.

Sounds to me like Jeffrey is spot on. I don’t know what a rich Christian country would look like because it does appear that wealth is the enemy of the faith. Makes sense actually - in a “rich” country people do not or think they do not need each other. Individualism gone crazy like we see in the West would be impossible without the kind of material prosperity that has developed since WWII.

A just capitalism is not, however, impossible to imagine. It would not include the pointless materialism that leads inevitably to debt. Nor would it include the kind of Darwinian libertarianism idolized by moronic athiests like Ayn Rand. As certain forms of social justice are by their nature communitarian (ie basic health care) it would require citizens willing to care for each other at the political level and pay their bills. This would mean higher taxes and fewer possessions. As should be clear, however, it would also require a society that allows a muscular religion in the public square and one that would, hopefully, respect human life. I doubt Pope would disagree with any of this. But it won’t happen until industrial nations are inhabited by citizens rather than taxpayers.
It is very important that Catholics realize that full nature of the problem we face. The immorality of secular humanism is self-evident. (Only in Obamaland would $250,000 a year be considered a middle class income and thus untouchable by the IRS and infanticide considered a human right.) But is very important to realize that Republican Party, especially the Tea Party branch, may say the right things on issues like abortion or “family values”. Their economic aims, however, are to “starve the beast” (ie: destroy government services) by cutting taxes to the level that the state cannot pay for public education, community health care and a financial safety net for the aged. Wake up folks: the Ayn Rand lovers are in the saddle in the GOP and what they want should be rejected out of hand.
There is nothing good about poverty. There is nothing in the faith that argues that we must defend the rights of the individual to fail. So what to do? Wait for the Democrats to agree to pay our debts fairly and cease their (sometimes intentional) war against religion. Or wait for the Republicans to recognize that the “market” can also be a false idol. It may be a long wait.

Here’s one simple suggestion for all of us to remember while trying to make sense of today’s economic mess: THERE ARE NO SIMPLE SOLUTIONS.
  Many writers have “earned” many bucks from all the added marketing techniques they use to package their “simple solutions.” Hmmm. Doesn’t this beg even a simple question, such as, “If these easy to figure out solutions, methods or approaches these business-literary geniuses are hawling ... why do they need to keep publishing manuals, work-out kits, hold seminars, etc, etc etc?”
  Truth is, the ir simple solution is to take something complicated, such as economics and even household bookeeping, mix in some razzle dazzle reflecting their “secret” on how to conduct “power negotiations” and all that palaber for the sole purpose of lining their wallets with what used to be their buyers former dollars. Think of many of these books about economics, and how to “approach” the topic with “easy-to-understand methods” as a genteel form of pickpocketing.
  Worse yet are the “motivational” kinds of these “simple solutions” genre ... especially the kind mixing faith and the need for one to work up his or her giddyup spirit necessary to fight the daily battle for more bucks or oontentment with the ones we have. (MLM, esp. Amway distributors sold those by the millions, if not billions.) Imagine the poor reader whose home-based MLM business is sluggish at best who’s aready dealing with clinical depression, oh, let’s say, Bipolar with a touch of ADHD. He or she reads these books and for a few seconds, POW, the old “I CAN DO THAT” sensation takes over and so does the devil’s own “health and wealth gospel” begin to take hold of this poor Christian businessperson. HOw PC of me to use that term. Sadly, it doesn’t take long for reality to hit this beleagured reader upside the old nogging and before he or she knows it, it’s Eyore at the Bookstore time!
  Well, if the business is tanking, what does that say about the spiritual bank account? It’s one thing to run out of cash by the end of the month. For most of us, it’s quite normal with begging our local banksters to raise our credit lines the only thing we have close to raiing our debt ceiling. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR SPIRITUAL BANK ACCOUNT IS IN DANGER OF MELTDOWN BECAUSE YOU’VE TIED IT TO THE WORST LEADING INDICATORS OF OVERALL MENTAL-ECONOMIC-SOCIAL-PHYSICAL HEALTH?
  Jeffery’s idea of simply giving our economic woes over to prayer is as solid as politicians talking down to their constituents saying “Well, it’s like this ... Youuuuu, unlike a lot of pols in Washing-ton, have a better idea of how to balance your books than they do.” Well, uh, there’s some truth to that. But here’s the part they leave out: most of us are just barely trying to figure out how to keep the family lemon from collapsing before inspection sticker time rolls around, never mind worrying about how to pay maintenance costs on B52s. As for the food budget; what mom has to deal with managing a WIC or other related programs to keep her little ones’ bellies from groaning too loudly during class the next day.
  Sigh, there’s always enough proof we’re still clear-cutting millions of acres to sell books promising “simple solutions”...if only we buy x, y, and z extra “exciting power-packed supplemental” tomes we already have more than enough reasons to say, “NO MORE.”