The Pope gives credit to capitalism where it is due. What he is rightly criticizing is not free market access or human progress but unbridled power that acts well beyond national borders for the sake of short-term profit and the demise of Earth’s resources for capital gain.
He is making visible the awareness that already exists in many large regions of the globe, that technology, for all its attributes, has spun headlong into “freedom” without an accompanying level of human responsibility and values that promote the good of all.
Let us recall it wasn’t capitalism that promoted human progress but the struggle of ordinary people organizing labor to free the worker from sweatshop conditions. Many died or had their health seriously impaired from unsafe working conditions. Corporate power did not speak to these conditions until they were forced into it by law and the outrage of public opinion. These improved working conditions legally permeated most levels of the community whether or not workers were members of a union.
Of course we could get closer to home and current history by questioning the “progress” of capitalism in Chicago, wondering why LaSalle Street markets are given tax breaks while property owners are promised increased tax rates and Chicago schools don’t know if they will get through the year.
— Karlene Mostek, Chicago
