Neoclassical economists, with platonic purity and always insistently, regard any market imperfections or external interventions as undesirable, and have been committed, following Adam Smith, to keeping markets as perfect (that is, unhindered) as possible. Albino Barrera starts from a different, much more realistic perspective. While acknowledging the virtues of the market as an efficient decentralized mechanism for allocating resources, he takes seriously the economic distress that markets actually generate in the lives of many people. That distress reaches a critical point in what B. calls "compulsion," namely, situations where freedom to choose is reduced to the freedom to sacrifice something essential for life in order to save something more essential, even life itself. These unpalatable choices are the staple of economic life for the poor.Chapters 1 and 2 present the concept of economic compulsion, and how it arises from the regular operation of real markets. The author brilliantly shows that compulsion needs not result only from intentional coercion, but often follows unintentionally from pecuniary externalities generated by the market itself. The different mechanisms through which pecuniary externalities produce economic compulsion are explained in a clear language that any reader, no matter how lay in economics, can understand without difficulty.Chapters 3 and 4 set a Christian "moral baseline" for judging economic compulsion. B. extracts three theses from the Bible and Christian theology:(1) God has created a world where human beings need not be subject to extreme scarcity or economic insecurity; (2) the divine gift of abundance and security is linked to an adequate structuring of economic life by the community; (3) the gift is also conditioned by personal effort. Particularly interesting are B.'s detailed presentations of the law of Israel and the Scholastic theory of the just price as social mechanisms for restoring those in economic distress, for reintegrating them fully into the productive effort of society and the enjoyment of its fruits. (The traditional theory of the state of extreme necessity, where private property is suspended while necessity lasts, could perhaps have been added here.)Chapter 5 proposes a reelaboration of social and economic rights doctrine as an adequate contemporary actualization of the moral baseline provided by the Christian tradition. With great analytic depth, B. develops such doctrine within a framework of personalistic humanism. In analytic detail, he counters the most relevant objections to the inclusion of social and economic rights within a general rights theory, and offers not only a list of well-meaning desiderata, but a practical theory able to adjudicate real-
Firstly, a basic understanding of economic competition and its role in the lives of the youth is presented. Then two forces are described which have affected the lowest echelons of the labour competition market during the last decade and the political reactions (xenophobic, anti–system) which ensued. Finally, some ideas are summarized which were presented at the discussion on the competitive impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the labour market, some of the responses proposed and the basic difficulties that affect them. We conclude that one must expect further political convulsions following infringements of the AI upon the structure of the youth labour market.
Palabras clave: Venezuela, socialismo, política rentista, nacionalizaci ítica rentista, nacionalizaci í ón de empresas.
ResumenSe presentan algunas cuestiones subyacentes a la "Declaración de UNIJES sobre la regeneración democrática de la vida pública en España" (la cual puede leerse completa en el Anexo). En concreto, se subrayan la relación entre ética y política, la relación de la población con el Estado nacional como instrumento de política, la prioridad propuesta de la política sobre la economía, el patrimonialismo en la vida pública española, y el problema del destinatario de la Declaración de UNIJES.Palabras clave. UNIJES, Estado nacional, ética, política, patrimonialismo, lucha de clases. The UNIJES Declaration about the Democratic Regeneration of Public Life in Spain.
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