The Faith and Industrial Capitalism

I don't know how Belloc does it.  In the abstracts of his essays he was astoundingly able to condense the essence of arguments into such brevity and clarity that you almost don't need to read the essay.  Here's his intro to "The Faith and Industrial Capitalism".  However, if this piques your interest, I do suggest you read the whole thing:



Industrial Capitalism is a manifest evil. It cries out against our sense of justice, its products offend our sense of beauty, the society based on it is not only vile but increasingly unstable. It came into existence through Calvinism, which was the vital principle informing all the revolt against the Faith at the origin of modern times. Yet there is no specific principle in Industrial Capitalism which can be doctrinally condemned. No Catholic can deny the rights of property, or of free contract. No Catholic can join the efforts made to be rid of the evils of Industrial Capitalism by way of civil war or tyranny. Least of all can any Catholic have anything to do with the inhuman system called "Communism." The remedy for the evils of Industrial Capitalism will not be found in any Socialistic action or theory developed under the very same false philosophy as produced Industrial Capitalism. We know that the remedy would be worse than the disease. The disease will never be remedied until the mind of society has been changed by conversion to the Faith. 

The rest.