Friday, May 9, 2014

Pope Demands 'Legitimate Redistribution' of Wealth

When it comes to economics, this Pope has no clue.

Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the "economy of exclusion" that is taking hold today, reports the Boston Herald.

Francis made the appeal during a speech to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the heads of major U.N. agencies who met in Rome this week.

He said a more equal form of economic progress can be had through "the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the state, as well as indispensable cooperation between the private sector and civil society."

The Pope obviously has a problem with understanding the ancient proverb:
 Give a man a fish and he eats for a day teach a man to fish and he can feed himself for life.
Redistribution of wealth is not the answer, the creation of a society where wealth can bloom through  freedom and the respect of property rights is the answer

(ht Jonathan Koop)

17 comments:

  1. Well he could start leading by example and stop living like royalty on other peoples charity.

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    1. Those demanding of redistribution never consider themselves to have too much. Considering that the average American is in the top 1% of global incomes, they are all hypocrites.

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  2. This charlatan does not understand the difference between charity and coercion. As the Lord says in Mark 14:7, "For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them."

    Here Christ echoes Deuteronomy 15:11. Because the poor are with us always, we are given the opportunity to exercise charity and benevolence. These opportunities are not compulsory ("you CAN do good for them"), and to make them so is an evil and twisted perversion of the scripture.

    And beyond the Gospels, this Pope would be well-advised to acquaint himself with St. Augustine, particularly the latter's views on the State.

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    1. Just War Theory Augustine... yeah, about that

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    2. And please, Francis, give us one instance when in the history of Man the confiscatory and redistributive powers of the State has ever once resulted in any appreciable reduction in poverty.

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  3. "When it comes to economics, this Pope has no clue." ... When it comes to economics, most phd's in economics have no clue.

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  4. Statist idea of wealth redistribution:

    Give spendthrifts a bunch of money so they can spend it on consumer goods.

    (Poof, gone is the money again back into the hands of evil capitalists)


    This is why Milton Friedman is useful in pointing out that wealth redistribution schemes just cause different faces to comprise the top 1%.

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  5. This is a guy that would preach against theft and yet turns around and promoted government theft of people for purposes of "charity". Hypocrite.

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  6. Since I openly hate religion I really don't pay attention to the Pope but I'm curious were Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict this active when it came to economics?

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  7. I'm sure our home grown socialists are giddy hearing this, but they should realize that the Pope is speaking on a global basis and not in particular any country. The US is one of the wealthiest countries on the planet where 2/3'rds of the world's population lives far below what we consider as poor. The redistribution the pope is speaking of is from the US and wealthy European nations to the worlds poor. This means every American is a rich person in the eyes of the pope and should have their property confiscated at gun point. Nice guy, eh. And the Pope better realize that in collectivist societies, the government's rarely tolerate competing sources of power and ideas, and thus have little use for the Pope or his God.

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    1. "I'm sure our home grown socialists are giddy hearing this"

      Paging Jeff Tucker! You've just been given the green light to go full on progressive!

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  8. So much for Papal infallibility

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  9. Only if you don't understand the truth about the Jesuits would this be surprising. Compared to the Jesuits the Pharisees were good little choir boys. "Be sure the light you have is truly light, for if it is darkness it is dark indeed".

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    1. But this is only recently, as Malachi Martin details in The Jesuits. The actual contributions to Western society by the Order are well-documented and profound in their extent.

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    2. Yeah they've really declined in usefulness as of late. The whole order though needs to be disbanded. They're now useless socialists.

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  10. "Thou shalt not steal."
    "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods."

    Seems like the Pope ought to be familiar with those commandments.

    On the other hand, are we sure that the press are accurately representing what the Pope has actually said? It would certainly not be the first time that the propaganda mills of social democracies unfairly and selective quoted someone to support their own agenda.

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  11. G-d these Latin Americans sure love their socialism.

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