I think the problem, as I put it earlier in more intemperate tones that I regret now, is that when it's a business we forget that there are human beings controlling that business and therefore influencing the lives of other human beings for good or ill.
The great genius of John Paul II is his constant call to put a human face on all human endeavor. And because of the Incarnation, the human face we are called to see is Christ's. Thus, the corporate honchos at Electrolux are not just shafting Greenville, MI; they are shafting Christ. They are not just disfiguring their own human dignity with their bottom-line greed; they are disfiguring the dignity of Christ.
"Economic liberty" does not mean the absolute freedom to do whatever one wants for the sake of profit. Economic liberty is the freedom to do what is right.
In case anyone's interested in one more take on the controversy.
Way late to wade into the fray, but often the problem is that people assume that the Catholic church mandates a leftist approach to the economy. If everyone conducted themselves according to the Catechism in every facet of their lives, we wouldn't need government intervention for anything. The problem, and I agree with David Morrison in this, is that we are unwilling to fix the problems ourselves by shopping differently and demanding that the companies in which we invest behave appropriately, so we try to make the government do our dirty work. No, the Catechism doesn't follow Ayn Rand or advocate unfettered capitalism, but voting for a Democrat, at the national level especially, doesn't follow the Catechism either, even if one of them were pro-life. They all want to tax us to death, which I don't think the Pope would be happy with either. Government is just as corrupt, if not more than, the average corporation.
Catherine
Like Catherine, I feel like I've arrived at the party just as they're emptying the ashtrays...
Kudos to you, Dale, for quoting and linking to primary sources. But as relevant as they are, they still don't answer the question at the heart of the matter: How do the these teachings translate into public policy?
Surely, Catholics (and any other decent people) ought to be repelled by both the cold nihlism of objectivism and the invidious malice of socialism. But then what? How do we avoid falling into either trap?
As for Dave Morrison, he makes one (and only one) good point: unionization needs to be a global phenomenon in a way that brings to the rest of the world the kinds of wages and working conditions enjoyed by American workers. But he, too, fails to answer the all-important question of "How?"
I do not mean to minimize in any way how the former Electrolux employees are suffering, either.
When the GM plant closed down in Fremont, CA in '82 prior to reopening as New United Motors, the stories of domestic violence, alcoholism, and even suicide were heartbreaking.
But again, what do we do? 
That wasn't meant to be an angry face, but a sad one.
Is anyone trying to make you but an Electrolux? Go ahead and boycott them. I repeat: it's very sad that the employees in Greenville have to look for new jobs, but that is a misfortune everybody faces at one time or another. Electrolux is not bound by human or divine law to keep employing the same people forever, and their understanding of what constitutes a "reasonable profit" is different from yours. By all means criticize them and boycott them; you do your judgment no credit, however, by shrilly insisting that you know how to apply Catholic teaching, and the rest of us are unthinking cogs in the soulless wheel of Commerce.
Elinor:
Speaking as a shrill, overheated, destructive, gulpy emotionalist with poor judgment, I'd like to thank you for helping me keep the discussion focused on the issues.
For my part, and for a myriad of reasons, I've passed my saturation point on Electrolux, and do not intend to comment further.
OK, one last thing. Your criticism that the post rather overstates the moral case for Electrolux critics is reasonable, and the post has been edited to reflect this fact.
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