I agree with the front-page Aug. 20 headline that “top CEOs’ max profits can’t continue to be the primary goal.”
Under capitalism, economic life is dominated by the process of capital investment: the lending of surplus wealth to merchants and industrialists in return for a share of their profits. Capitalism is not evil in itself, but its operation independent of Christian principles has tended to promote a ruthless individualist spirit that has had tragic consequences.
The unrestrained struggle for economic supremacy has resulted in extreme concentration of wealth. Moreover, the control of economic power, and the accompanying moral responsibility, are often transformed by the actual owners of wealth to a few managers and trustees.
The ultimate consequences were described by Pope Pius XI in his 1928 encyclical on capitalism: “Free competition has destroyed itself; economic dictatorship has supplanted the free market; unbridled ambition for power has likewise succeeded greed for gain; all economic life has become tragically hard, inexorable and cruel.”
In the same encyclical, the pope prescribed the remedies for this chaotic situation: Economic life must be governed by Christian principles; justice and charity must have a leading role; the fruits of production must be equitably distributed, so that workers may obtain full economic security, including means of acquiring property of their own.
The state must relinquish the subsidiary functions that it has been led to assume and that properly belong to lesser associations.
It must work with the citizenry for the establishment of self-governing associations, composed of the employers and employees of the various industries and professions, who will cooperate amicably for the common good of all members of the industry or profession and thus supplant economic dictatorship with economic democracy.
Robert Ferrante
South Portland
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