Pope Francis says the trickle down theory is a new tyranny in the world, and that such an economy kills. Yet, when Vatican Radio released its estimates of how many Christians were tortured and martyred, 70,000 last year, down from 100,000 the year before, it identified only Muslims and Communists as killers. Am I missing something? When did it become kick the capitalists time, when capitalism is not guilty of committing aggressive war or genocide. Yes, I am offended when somebody falsely accuses me of being a killer.
The Pope, in the four pages of original contribution to the stream of Catholic thought, made two references. One was to idolatry, in which he referenced Aaron. Give me a break. Aaron was not a supply-sider. Aaran’s sin was that he wanted to return the children to Egypt because they preferred the safety of slavery to the challenges of being free and putting your trust in God.
The other reference was to St. John Chrysostom, an early doctor of the Church. Pope Francis quotes Chrysostom on the moral obligation of the rich to give to the poor (which, verily, is in keeping with the Bible and with Jesus’ teaching in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man). No problem there. But, Pope Francis leaves out that Chrysostom said that forced charity would be ineffective and even harmful. Here, let me quote Chrysostom (sermon 63):
“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold form the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people’s hearts first - and then they will joyfully share their wealth.”
(BTW in my opinion, most heresy consists of over-emphasizing part of the truth. Jesus was not an “either/or” man. He was a “both/and” man.)
Is Pope Francis such a fool that he thinks trying to appear to be the most empathetic man in the world will win converts from the progressive socialist atheists?
Well, maybe, he thinks he is following Jesus in his parable of the Good Shepherd. The one who leaves the 99 and pursues the one who has gone astray. If Pope Francis wants to abandon those of us who work and save, raise families, pay taxes and freely contribute to the poor, in order to pursue the ones who have gone astray, that’s his business. But, that doesn’t give him license to make false accusations.
Do you think Pope Francis said that everybody who participates in economic enterprise, is a murderer? That would be the same as accusing you and a couple million other people involved in ordinary honest businmess enterprise, of being murderers, but I don't think he did that.
My understanding is that "trickle-down theory" has a meaning closer to laissez-faire or Objectivist (Any Rand). People who reject all economic action which is outside of the market, whether by government (fair trade or commercial law) or by private concerns (e.g. charities.) But that's not "all free-market participants."
I think many free-marketeers would agree that a free market ALONE does not produce justice, since the free market must be subject to what Madison called "the benign influence of a responsible government" --- meaning, the Constitutionally enumerated and limited roles that government should play in economic exchange.
That would be: prevention of fraud, protection of creators' intellectual property, establishing sound currency, keeping things competitive (suppressing various kinds of extortion, graft, protectionism, banksterism, cronyism), preventing the "downstreaming" of external costs and harms, including environmental.
That would NOT be: Obamunism, and all its disastrously sovietizing, statist ambitions.
A free-market economy is not totally laissez-faire. It is shaped by the just exercise of both governmental and private non-market factors --- and it's disastrous when it is not.
To take just one example, the free cross-border trade in narcotics, weapons, and pirated technology; human trafficking in age sex-slaves and bracero labor; and the free flow of low-wage workers across borders, is certainly "free market" but certainly not just. A free-market is also shaped by economic transactions which are outside of the market: for instance, private, individual, corporate, and church-related charities, philanthropy, cooperative and mutual-aid societies, and values-based consumer behavior: these are not based on market mechanisms, but form an absolutely essential complement in a free-market economy.
So, as Pope Francis said in that battered Paragraph 54, a free market does not of itself ("por si mismo") "succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world." Of itself is an important phrase, because it indicates that human economic transactions outside of the market (e.g. voluntary charities) will never become redundant: the market system does not achieve universal good results all by itself.