The Catholic Movement Employers and Managers (Studia Socialia)

Today's industrial economy functions through the combined efforts of two principal groupings of persons: employers and employees, management and labor, bosses and workers. Their main operative relation is the wage contract, by which the employees agrees to work under the direction of the employer for monetary remuneration, on materials and with instruments which are owned by, or in the charge of, the employer or manager. In the modern capitalist system these means of production are in very great proportion owned by individuals, families, partners or incorporated companies. Although through widespread ownership of stocks, bonds or shares title to a particular company is often in the hands of tens of thousands of persons, this system is popularly called private enterprise. This is to be distinguished from ownership or control of productive means by the state or political collectivity through socialization or nationalization of property. In the economies of most Western nations modern capitalism combines in some proportion both these system of ownership in a mixed economy.