I confess, as a capitalist, former owner of an auto recycling business, a manufacturer, and now a consultant to buyers and sellers of businesses, I love capitalism despite the heartlessness of the popular Ayn Rand social Darwinism that has been made mainstream through right wing extremists these past few election cycles.
It may be that the tipping point has finally been reached and the growing and mean spirited treatment of people unfortunate enough not to be born into wealth or family business (the working class, the middle class, & poor people) will become anathema to this next generation. Trickle down economics days are numbered.
Leading the charge is the powerful voice of Pope Francis.
For the first time in thirty years, I’m impressed with the rhetoric of the Catholic Church. Religious news has been so grim for so long. Outside of Mother Theresa, The Church has not presented itself well since the day Martin Luther King Jr. wrote Church leaders about their own lack of support of people of color in a bigoted America.
The meanness, self righteousness, and punishment values of the political Right have been so long & sustained that the fundamentals of Christian principles (Suffer the children, My brothers keeper etc) has not been heard at all. As a CASA guardian ad-Litem, I’m pretty happy to hear his words (below)
Thank you Pope Francis
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In a new Evangelii Gadium, Pope Francis has condemned doctrinaire capitalism, “deified markets,” trickle-down economics, and the finance industry. He decried the growing gap between the rich and the poor, tax evasion by the wealthy, and characterized ruthless free-market economics as a killer that was inherently sinful.
“I am interested only in helping those who are in thrall to an individualistic, indifferent and self-centered mentality to be freed from those unworthy chains and to attain a way of living and thinking which is more humane, noble and fruitful, and which will bring dignity to their presence on this earth,” the pope wrote.
He also launched a broadside against former President Ronald Reagan’s signature economic theory, which continues to serve as conservative Republican dogma.
“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” Pope Francis wrote. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.”
The pope lamented that people had “calmly accepted (the) dominion” of money over themselves and society, which he said was expressed in the recent financial crisis and the continuing promotion of consumer-based economies.
“We have created new idols,” the pope wrote. “The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.”
Pope Francis rips capitalism and trickle-down economics to shreds in new policy statement [Travis Gettys/Raw Story]
