Pope Francis Challenges Capitalism

[cornographic]

From Huffington Post:

 

ASUNCION, July 11 (Reuters) - Pope Francis appealed to world leaders on Saturday to seek a new economic model to help the poor, and to shun policies that "sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit."

It was the second time during his trip to South America that Francis, the first pope from the region, used a major speech to excoriate unbridled capitalism and champion the rights of the poor.

In Bolivia last Thursday, he urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a "new colonialism" by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the "sacred rights" of labor, lodging and land.

 

"Putting bread on the table, putting a roof over the heads of one's children, giving them health and an education, these are essential for human dignity," he said.

He urged politicians and business leaders "not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit."

He said those charged with promoting economic development must ensure it had "a human face" and he blasted "the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pope-francis-condemns-corruption-and-unbridled-capitalism-in-south-america_55a1e4cce4b0ecec71bc4f3d

 

 

Pope Francis ignites a revolt that will overthrow American capitalism http://www.marketwatch.com/story/pope-francis-leading-the-new-american-socialist-revolution-2015-07-20

 

[Landlord]

Way to go Francis.

[zoogs]

Way to go!

 

I think America is relatively speaking pretty open to these ideas and could be somewhat of a world leader. Not that we are without faults, but ...

 

* austerity has NOT prevailed here, at least not so far.

 

* "unbridled capitalism" kind of makes me think more of China or say, Saudi Arabia. It's state capitalism to be sure, but talk about massive corporations for example, or severe income gaps. And I may be demonstrating my ignorance here, but it seems there's a lot less in the way of a pathway towards something better there.

[Scratchtown]

Had to look up the word "austerity". Never heard that word before. Maybe I have but just shrugged it off before.

[ZRod]

Had to look up the word "austerity". Never heard that word before. Maybe I have but just shrugged it off before.

It's been a pretty big issue in Europe for the last 6 or 7 years with the world wide recession. Spain and Greece were the major hot beds.

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Had to look up the word "austerity". Never heard that word before. Maybe I have but just shrugged it off before.

It's been a pretty big issue in Europe for the last 6 or 7 years with the world wide recession. Spain and Greece were the major hot beds.

 

Well, in America too: cutbacks on anything to do with public services--education, in particular--in favor of taxpayer $ going toward the bankster bailouts and otherwise national debt. This was one of the primary issues raised in the Occupy movement, in particular, the rising costs of public colleges and subsequent huge student debt as public $ has been significantly cutback. There was a bit of a cutback in social security payments as well, if I'm not mistaken, and the various other social services. Scott Walker, backed by the Koch Bros, is perhaps the poster boy of 'austerity' practices in his egregious attacks on anything public in WI, having recently cut the WI Univ system budget by $250 million(after they requested an increase of $9.5 mil or so).

 

So, in short, 'austerity' has meant that all countries effected by the bankster catastrophy have to use tax payer $ to pay back to the same banksters that caused the problem in the 1st place. Iceland didn't play ball with that and basically kicked the private banksters out and renationalized their banks. Ireland has resisted the whole austerity thing too. Cypress basically went down the tubes as the level of other bank corruption--namely, huge amounts of money laundering for narcotrafficers such as the Red Mefia and the like--added to the mortgage backed securites mess. Greece put their population under pretty severe austerity cuts for the last 6-7 years, so, they elect a socialist party(Syriza) who tried to fight back. Basically, the former Greek gov't had taken out huge loans from the likes of France and mainly Germany, couldn't pay 'em back, so Merkl brokers a deal with the EU to take over the debt and impose an even more draconian austerity on the people. The people are always blamed of course.

 

Anyway, glad the Pope has finally started catching up with the rest of the world, but the big irony here is that the Catholic Church is one of the biggest capitalistic organizations on the planet--maybe just behind Walmart, haha--so, don't know how they plan on getting around that 'slight' PR inconsistency, that is, if anyone bothers to ask them.