Pope Francis is earning the moniker, the Red
Pope. The pontiff’s encyclical is a
parfait of global warming hysteria, social justice, and anti-capitalist
sentiments topped off with faux concerns for the poor.
Capitalism has been a boon for humanity. The Industrial Revolution ushered in an age
of prosperity. This explosion of
innovation is a direct result from profit and property rights. The unskilled and the poor were provided
opportunities other than subsistence farming, which was the predominate means of
living prior to the 1800’s. Here is an
excerpt from Economics and Liberty:
Here we have the economic history of the world in one picture, as summarized for us by Gregory Clark in A Farewell to Alms:
The
basic outline of world economic history is surprisingly simple. . . . Before
1800 income per person--the food, clothing, heat, light, and housing available
per head--varied across societies and epochs. . . . the average person in the
world in 1800 was no better off than the average person of 100,000 BC.
Indeed in 1800 the bulk of the world's population was poorer than their
remote ancestors. . . . Life expectancy was no higher in 1800 than for
hunter-gatherers: thirty to thirty-five years. . . . average welfare, if
anything, declined from the Stone Age to 1800. The poor of 1800, those
who lived by their unskilled labor alone, would have been better off if
transferred to a hunter-gatherer band. The Industrial Revolution, a mere
two hundred years ago, changed forever the possibilities of material
consumption. Incomes per person began to undergo sustained growth in a
favored group of countries. The richest modern economies are now ten to
twenty times wealthier than the 1800 average. Moreover the biggest
beneficiary of the Industrial Revolution has so far been the unskilled.
There have been benefits aplenty for the typically wealthy owners of land
or capital, and for the educated. But industrialized economies saved their best
gifts for the poorest.[Introduction,
pp. 1-3]
In other words, for
most of human history and in most places in the world, almost all people lived
very near subsistence. But, something happened around 1800 in some
places, and the masses of people in those places began to break away from
subsistence living and to prosper.
This is the Great Fact of history, as Deirdre McCloskey refers to it in Bourgeois Dignity. This Great Fact seems to be something most people are unaware of, even among the people who are living in those places in the world where most people live far from subsistence. It is a fact which seems to be missing from the curricula materials in our schools. It even seems that this missing fact contributes to many people taking our own prospering for granted. So, I suppose it should be no surprise that many people seem to believe ideas that are inconsistent with the explanation for why, in some parts of the world, the masses of people began to prosper and continue to prosper today.
Pope Francis
falls into that category. He believes
rich nations somehow owe a debt to the world’s poor simply because they are
more prosperous. Here is an excerpt from
the Guardian:
Pope Francis has
called on the world’s rich nations to begin paying their “grave social debt” to
the poor and take concrete steps on climate change, saying failure to do so
presents an undeniable risk to a “common home” that is beginning to resemble a
“pile of filth”.
The pope’s 180-page encyclical on the
environment, released on Thursday, is at its core a moral call for action on
phasing out the use of fossil fuels.
But it is also a document infused with
an activist anger and concern for the poor, casting blame on the indifference
of the powerful in the face of certain evidence that humanity is at risk
following 200 years of misuse of resources.
Up to now, he says, the world has
accepted a “cheerful recklessness” in its approach to the issue, lacking the
will to change habits for the good of the Earth.
“Climate change is a global problem with
grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the
distribution of goods,” the papal statement says. “It represents one of the
principal challenges facing humanity in our day.”
The true driver of poverty in the third-world is not
indifference; its corrupt governments and a lack of access to electricity. Businesses need assurances like the rule of
law and dependable energy to prosper.
That isn’t going to happen when dictators disguised as social justice
warriors are running your country. Can
anyone say Venezuela?
The Red Pope would be a better advocate for the poor
by holding up the first-world as an example, instead of trying to tear it down.
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