Naivete is all the author’s.
Indeed free market is the best force for prosperity, and the best background for a society wishing to engage in a spiritual pursuits. That, however, is only true if the free market is made up by moral and spiritual men. That indeed lifts all boats as American history prior to 1973 (to pick one date) shows.
Today in America we have a remnant of a free market: our domestic industrial base is nearly destroyed and the economy is rapidly becoming that of a third nation tourist attraction state: banking and entertainment sector, with overpriced high-tech enclaves employing mostly foreign labor.
With the destruction of family structures in the US and despiritualization of the American nation, the remnant of free trade capitalism that we have domestically is on its way to complete extinction.
The international trade is not by itself a bad thing, but a free market it isn’t. Our industry has relocated to China, a Communist country with one party rule and planned economy. Foreign trade is trade between governments, — not free by definition. Anyone with libertarian leanings should abhor it as any other statist plague.
But the Pope is not a pope for America. His is the pope for the world. Globally, so-called “free trade” capitalism surely prospered some areas, mostly in SE Asia trading posts and, again, in Red China. And the countries that wisely retained national economies, like Japan, prosper as well.
But to apply the wonders of “trickle-down economics” to the slums in Argentina or Brazil is laughable. These are truly islands of exclusion and are likely to remain just that.
The Pope is right, the limbaughs of the US should get out some more before they air their parochial opinions.
Look at pushback to begin starting next year. It has started against Obamacare BIGITME.
Capitalism is simply economic freedom for individuals to wield. When people choose to put their “betters” in charge of their economic choices you end up with an enslaved, dependent and poor society.