Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Pope Uses 50,000 Words To Trash Capitalism

(AP Photo)
It's too bad that Pope Francis doesn't follow the writing advice of the late Elmore Leonard. Essentially, the great author of such masterpieces as "Rum Punch" and "Get Shorty" used to tell aspiring writers to keep it pithy. The Pope, however, went on a 50,000 word collectivist rampage ('Evangelii Gaudium') recently that basically blamed "unfettered" capitalism for every ill on Earth. Here's part of His Holiness' screed: "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 naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile the excluded are still waiting." In fact, capitalism (particularly America's variant of it) has been responsible for more human happiness than any other economic system in history—or any religion for that matter. In a way, the Pope's statement is a good thing. It reminds us that for all the PR the new pontiff spun out over the last several months, he's nothing more than another theist bully.