Audrey
Pietrucha
T’is the
season when many of us are swimming in the sea of excess. A few weeks after frantically
trying to find the perfect gifts for friends and family members who already
have everything they need we’re back at the stores buying plastic bins to hold
our holiday haul. After stuffing ourselves with cookies and bounteous meals
we’re sucking in our stomachs and promising to lose those extra pounds. Some of
us are swearing off alcohol or cigarettes or chocolate and vowing to live lives
that are both simpler and healthier.
So Pope
Francis’ recent remarks on global poverty have provoked emotional responses
from people on both side of the wealth divide. Both the pontiff’s remarks and
the issues they address are nuanced and complex and deserve similar serious
treatment.
We should
begin with acknowledgement of the good news in the global economic situation: worldwide
poverty is on the decline. Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz of the Brookings Institution have studied the global economy and found
the “rise of emerging economies
has led to a dramatic fall in global poverty.” They estimate between 2005 and
2010 the total number of poor people around the world fell by nearly half a
billion, from over 1.3 billion in 2005 to under 900 million in 2010.
“Poverty
reduction of this magnitude is unparalleled in history,” Chandy and Gertz said.
“Never before have so many people been lifted out of poverty over such a brief
period of time.”
Poverty
does, of course, still exist and in greater numbers than with which any feeling
human being is comfortable. Its causes on both a national and global scale are
many and diverse. It is not wholly the result of laziness on the part of the
poor or greed and selfishness on the part of the rich. That some of those
traits exist at both ends of the personal economic spectrum is true, but so do
the traits of generosity, compassion and industriousness. A society is
comprised of individuals and each brings his or her own personal circumstances
and responses to life experience to the economic table. Some of these reactions
and actions will serve to uplift and strengthen both the individual and
society, some will tear down. A large part of our challenge is to identify and
encourage positive outcomes.
So Pope
Francis’ admonition to world leaders to become involved in the redistribution
of wealth was disappointingly one-dimensional. It was also most likely the
exact opposite of what they should be doing. Time and again, studies indicate
it is economic freedom, not government control, that best alleviates poverty
and creates prosperous societies.
For
almost 20 years Canada’s Fraser Institute has been studying the global economy and
releasing an index of world economic freedom. The index measures the
size and scope of government, adherence to the rule of law, access to sound
money, freedom to trade internationally and the regulation of credit, labor and
business. The institute has identified four cornerstones of economic freedom, which are:
·
Voluntary exchange coordinated by markets rather than
allocation via the political process
·
Freedom to enter and compete in markets
·
Protection of persons and their property from aggression by
others
Nations whose governments honor the values embodied in the four
cornerstones are consistently most prosperous while nations with less freedom
are also least prosperous. What’s more, the poor in the economically free
nations are far better off financially than the middle class in nations with
repressive economic systems.
In his remarks Pontiff warned against “a crude and naïve trust
in the goodness of those wielding economic power,” but then seemed to
relinquish that power to the state, which he said was “charged with vigilance
for the common good.” Centuries of wars, man-caused famines and other
atrocities bring into question the state’s ability to discern what is actually
good for the people. Placing economic power in the hands of those whose actions
have proven they do not deserve it seems the pinnacle of “crude and naïve
trust.” Haven’t volumes of history as well as uncomfortably recent scandals
taught us that? Whether it is the targeting of people and political groups by
the IRS, the massive collection of personal data by the NSA and even New Jersey
governor Chris Christie’s possible involvement in punishing political enemies don’t
we have daily proof that for too many of our so-called leaders politics is a
game of chess and we are the pawns?
Political power and economic power are all too often one and the same.
Undesirable economic circumstances that are often blamed on capitalism are most
often the result of collusion between those seeking political favor and those
dispensing it. A market that is dependent on government involvement is not free
by any means. Governments should limit their roles to protecting people’s
rights to interact and trade with each other peacefully. Power of any variety
should be spread among as many people as possible, with individuals retaining
the most with regards to the governance of their own lives.
Audrey Pietrucha is on the executive
board of Vermonters for Liberty. She can be reached at
vermontliberty@gmail.com.
