A short time ago, I wrote in these pages remarking why invoking subsidiarity in the healthcare debate is problematic. I remain convinced that the concept – at least as popes have articulated it – is useful, but misunderstood.
Initially, subsidiarity was supposed to combat the effects of free market capitalism and head off socialism. Mass production had destroyed many of the guilds and rural networks workers had depended on for social insurance. At issue, also, was the immense concentration of property in the hands of a very few capitalists.
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