Pope Benedict, capitalism, and income security for all
Pope Benedict, capitalism, and income security for all
“Pope Benedict XVI says modern capitalism is failing.”
That was the caption on a CNN website story, here, about the Pope’s encyclical published just ahead of President Obama and other G8 leaders arrival in Italy.
Too bad the Pope didn’t go a step further and present the solution: a guaranteed basic income.
“Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers,” according to the Pope. Income security for all, a guaranteed basic income for every adult will create a a real safety net so no one is exploited or totally excluded from the market. Free markets can then promote and serve ethics, social justice, and the common good. Everyone will be able to participate in the market.
In the United States, the amount might be $1,000 a month for every adult citizen. In poorer countries the basic income might be $500, or $200, or $50, or even less. The basic income experiment underway in Namibia is using the equivalent of $14 U.S. each month.
The question and nature of capitalism is the subject of a book about basic income, Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism? by Philippe Van Parijs, (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998).
Millions of Americans demanded guaranteed income in the 1930s, and that’s how we won Social Security. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. and many moderate politicians and many leading economists also endorsed guaranteed income. It’s time to update the idea and enact it.
The complete plan, the idea, the benefits, and how we can make it happen, is in Peaceful, Positive Revolution,.
Additional information is on the home page and elsewhere on this web site.
I hope you’ll also comment on this blog. And please help spread the word.
Steven Shafarman
Tags: capitalism, Pope Benedict, popular support, poverty
July 12th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback