Trickle-down theory and resisting the economy of exclusion

  The influence of Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and other Leftist economists on Vatican is conspicuous if one goes by the Papal documents and speeches from Vatican these days.

 Last week, in his address to one of the UN delegations, Pope Francis emphasized the need to challenge “all forms of injustice” and resist the “economy of exclusion”, the “throwaway culture” and the “culture of death” which nowadays  “sadly risk becoming passively accepted”.

  The Pope also pointed the executives to the Gospel story of Zacchaeus the tax collector, as an example of how it’s never too late to correct injustice. The Zacchaeus story is all about legitimate redistribution of wealth.  Zacchaeus said, "half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.…"

  Vatican has been questioning the “trickle-down” theory these days. Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. “This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system,” he wrote in Evangelii Gaudium.

  Economist Alejandro Chafuen writes, “Most of the statements on economics coming out of the Vatican that disturb free-market champions have been preceded by similar statements from noted economists. Such is the case with Francis’ apostolic exhortation.”

   Vatican says the excluded are still waiting. Pope uses tough words to decry the approach of the capitalist countries. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own, he says.

 “The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us,” Pope writes.  The two countries that should come to one’s mind in terms of high economic growth  coexisting with injustice and lack of inclusiveness are China and India.

  Vatican’s tilt is clearly visible. I won’t say it’s a Marxist tilt. While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.

  According to Chafuen, Stiglitz’s writings had an impact on the second most influential Argentine at the Vatican: Monsignor Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Science. Stiglitz was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2003 and had been chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. John Allen, a respected Vatican observer, wrote in 2003 that Stiglitz, “in that capacity, will help guide Vatican policy on global economic issues.” Stiglitz was a personal favorite of Sánchez Sorondo.

   Pope is clear that future sustainable development goals must be formulated and carried out with generosity and courage, so that they can have a real impact on the structural causes of poverty and hunger, attain more substantial results in protecting the environment, ensure dignified and productive labour for all, and provide appropriate protection for the family, which is an essential element in sustainable human and social development.
 At the end of the day, what’s in the mind of Pope Francis. It’s evangelisation.  If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse, she has to go forth to everyone without exception, he says. But to whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy neighbours, but above all the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked, “those who cannot repay you”, he says.

   It is the encounter between Jesus Christ and the rich tax collector Zacchaeus that should awaken us. Zacchaeus made a radical decision of not only giving back ill-gotten wealth but four times of that wealth. His conscience was awakened by the gaze of Jesus. This same spirit should be at the beginning and end of all political and economic activity, Pope says.

  The gaze, often silent, of that part of the human family which is cast off, left behind, ought to awaken the conscience of political and economic agents and lead them to generous and courageous decisions with immediate results, like the decision of Zacchaeus. Does this spirit of solidarity and sharing guide all our thoughts and actions?