Video: Economic collapse or cooperation?

This is the video of American economist and Catholic Social Teaching specialist John Médaille’s presentation at the webinar cosponsored by the Australian Cardijn Institute and Cardijn Associates USA on 8-9 August 2025.

“The time has come to think the unthinkable—the collapse of the American
political and economic systems,” John said.

“The world along with us, from Beijing to Boston, from New York to Moscow, the facade of prosperity and stability is falling apart, to reveal the rotten timbers they have been holding up the structure, but can no longer hold,” he warns.

“The truth I think is this: that economic order is built upon the natural order, and the natural order is built upon natural law or the moral order. And to depart from the moral order leads us to corrupt the natural order and destroy economic order.

“If we are to rebuild the world, I believe we must begin by reconnecting the ethical, economic, and political orders,” Médaille argues.

“The great problem with capitalism is that it tends to concentrate that which it should spread,” he warns.

The solution, John Médaille explains, therefore lies in the direction of distributism, the economic and political philosophy that proposes an alternative to both capitalism and socialism by advocating for the widespread ownership of the means of production.

Worker co-operatives such as those at Mondragon in Spain and in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region offer practical examples of pathways to the future, he suggests.

Watch the video