Ethical economics protects individuals
AS JORGE Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, now known as Pope Francis, assumes leadership for the world’s 1.2bn Catholics, we won’t presume to tell him how to think on matters religious. But for the sake of world markets, we hope the new pope will act in the best tradition of Catholic economic thought.
Ideally, that means recognising the value of free markets and free economies, and realising that work and trade endow humans with not just wealth but also dignity and freedom. It also means understanding the dangers posed by excessive inequality, the outsize burdens that technological advances and environmental degradation will impose on the poor, and the responsibility of the rich to help the underprivileged navigate a turbulent economic transition.
