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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: i-node who wrote (890656)9/30/2015 1:47:08 PM
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The Contradictory Pope
Pope Francis' condemnation of capitalism undercuts his call to end poverty.
You won't fix poverty without capitalism.
By Liya Palagashvili and Donald J. Boudreaux
Sept. 28, 2015

With Pope Francis' first visit to the United States just wrapping up, he leaves behind two contradictory positions. He touched on these contradictions in a speech to Congress last Thursday.

Francis criticizes the evils of capitalism and its spirit of profit. Yet at the same time, he pushes for an end to poverty. Here's the conflict:

Capitalism is fueled by voluntary exchange; under it, individuals prosper only by serving their fellow men and women. It is in capitalist societies where doctors are sometimes motivated by higher earnings to save the lives of individuals. It is in capitalist societies where scientists often work tirelessly to create medicine that will cure diseases. It is typically profit that motivates your local grocer to deliver the food you need to survive.

Eliminating profit will encourage the reality of poverty. If individuals cannot profit from taking risks and working hard to launch and run supermarkets, they probably won't make food readily available to you. They probably won't spend time creating new technologies that make your life better if they can't earn the benefits for their efforts.

If we look across time, it is market-driven economic development that lifted billions of individuals out of poverty. And if we look across economic systems today, the capitalist economies are the ones that ensure the best outcomes for the poor. Individuals in non-capitalist countries would love the economic opportunities regularly offered to ordinary men and women in capitalist societies. Only in societies made rich by capitalism are food and clean water abundant; only in capitalist societies do the masses have the best access to affordable and effective health care. Such goods and services are widely available under capitalism because the spirit of profit motivates people to produce them.

It's impractical to stop individuals from being motivated by profit. We understand that the pope hopes people will instead be motivated chiefly by a philanthropic spirit. But this simply isn't feasible for the masses, and reality isn't optional. Until men and women become angels, the only practical economic system for ensuring prosperity for the larger population is one grounded in private property rights and freedom of exchange. Only in such a system can people profit exclusively by serving others.

usnews.com
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