re: Pope Francis to issue edict on Climate Change, Greed, Social Inequality.

quote:

---

Perhaps he thinks the people should use more restraint?

---

in creating goods and services that make life better?

or in creating voluntary agreement amongst people?

I think he's saying there's a lot of unethical behavior going on and it's being handsomely rewarded by the system.

quote:

---

Well, unless the pope has created an entirely new economic model, he has to pick between this consumption culture and a decline in poverty worldwide, or condemn to poverty the poor he wants to help in order to get real climate change through.

---

he doesn't have those two options.

Another thing the Church has always been for Capitalism but not a capitalism that is it's own end. Meaning simply this, capitalism appears to be the most efficient economic system proposed, but the end of capitalism is profit (more complex but still basically that). Even capitalism needs to be guided by some type of ethical norms in society. From at-least Pope Leo XIII the Church has been for the best economic system that is guided by ethics.

Plus we don't know what the Pope is going to suggest. What I see him doing is pull from already in place Catholic Social Doctrine and try to apply it to the situation of today. He isn't going to say Governments should do this, rather he will in a very general way suggest how we should go about taking care of the earth.

quote:

---

I think he's saying there's a lot of unethical behavior going on and it's being handsomely rewarded by the system.

---

first, you have to define unethical. the premise of the pope's argument is that having more than another is unethical

second, that's much more myth than reality, and much of the actual unethical behavior is only allowed via government

Something that most people miss when talking about the Pope and the economy is the fact that recently the Pope has been for capitalism. Nothing I've seen Pope Francis said goes against what JPII said bellow

quote:

---

The answer is obviously complex. If by “capitalism” is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a “business economy”, “market economy” or simply “free economy”. But if by “capitalism” is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative.

---

There is nothing I've seen that suggest Pope Francis will go against this understanding. Because he lived in Latin America I think he has seen little more negative impacts of "capitalism" but I would be shocked if he goes against his predecessors.

quote:

---

Let's say a company uses unethical labor practices

---

what does this even mean?

quote:

---

let me rephrase.

A company uses practices that puts their employees in danger in order to save a few dollars in production of their products. How does a capitalistic society without any ethical norms prevent this from happening?

---

Some jobs are inherently more dangerous than others. A more clear cut example: A health insurance company denies clearly legitimate claims in order to boost its bottom line. They're doing right by their shareholders (increasing profits) but it's clearly immoral and unethical since they took the policyholder's money under false pretenses.

Or an auto manufacturer knows a batch of defective airbags went out and decides it's "too expensive" to fix it, so they try to cover up the problem and hope it doesn't come back to bite them.

quote:

---

Or an auto manufacturer knows a batch of defective airbags went out and decides it's "too expensive" to fix it, so they try to cover up the problem and hope it doesn't come back to bite them.

---

this is an issue of cost, not morality

LINK

quote:

---

like Apple installing suicide nets outside the worker dorms in China?

---

that sounds like a very ethical move

quote:

---

Or Wall Street just paying off Congress to socialize all the risk on 250 Trillion of derivatives while privatizing all the profits.

---

i already said the truly unethical behavior is basically limited to government-backed action