More Bullshit from the Pope.

 

Here is the article By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Lorenzo Totaro, from Bloomberg:

Market Economy and Ethics

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/20/pope_prediction/

 

 

Pope Had `Prophecy’ of Market Collapse in 1985, Tremonti Says

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Pope Benedict XVI was the first to predict the crisis in the global financial system, a “prophecy” dating to a paper he wrote when he was a cardinal, Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said.

 

“The prediction that an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules can be found” in an article written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became pope in April 2005, Tremonti said yesterday at Milan’s Cattolica University.

 

German-born Ratzinger in 1985 presented a paper entitled “Market Economy and Ethics” at a Rome event dedicated to the Church and the economy. The future pope said a decline in ethics “can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse.”

 

Pope Benedict in an Oct. 7 speech reflected on crashing markets and concluded that “money vanishes, it is nothing” and warned that “the only solid reality is the word of God.”

 

The Vatican’s official newspaper, l’Osservatore Romano, on the same day criticized the free-market model for having “grown too much and badly in the past two decades.”

 

 

The entire text of the Pope’s bullshit article can be found here:

 

http://www.acton.org/publications/occasionalpapers/publicat_occasionalpapers_ratzinger.php

 

I read this article several times and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (is Cardinal his middle name?), who is now Pope Benedict XVI, basically says an undisciplined economy would collapse by its own rules. No shit.

 

I saw nothing that would remotely indicate the Pope “prophesied” the present economic situation, but read it yourself.  I would say an undisciplined AND unregulated economy would collapse by its own rules. Is that a big revelation? Did God tell me that in a dream? No. It’s only common sense. As a Conservative, I advocate minimal governmental interference in the free market, but at times things really have to be regulated or people will be scammed.

 

The point is here that the Catholics, ever on the lookout for some shred of credibility, hail some statements as a “Prophesy” made by Grand Master P. predicting the economic crisis we have today.  Is there evidence of a divine prophesy in this article, from the Pope?

 

The Pope-a-Dope article speaks in very vague and general terms. It seems His real theme is that morality should be an integral part of the market, or the economy. Since that doesn’t happen, according to him in a free market, his article actually advocates a centralized market or Socialism.

 

 From the article:

 

“Following the tradition inaugurated by Adam Smith , this position holds that the market is incompatible with ethics because voluntary “moral” actions contradict market rules and drive the moralizing entrepreneur out of the game. For a long time, then, business ethics rang like hollow metal because the economy was held to work on efficiency and not on morality. The market’s inner logic should free us precisely from the necessity of having to depend on the morality of its participants. The true play of market laws best guarantees progress and even distributive justice.”

 

“Distributive justice”?? The Pope advocates Socialism, not a free market.

 

This is driven home when he advocates “a centralized economy, where the goal is equal rights for all and proportionate distribution of goods to all.”

 

Again with the socialism. Hey, look at the glowing record of Communist regimes and the huge 20^th Century experiment in socialism. They all went broke, you stupid shit.

 

So, Pope Benny, let’s look at the root of any economic system, human behavior. Say, a person is standing in front of a movie theater, looking at the marquis. What drives that person’s choice of movie he goes to see and thus spends his hard earned cash on?

 

What is his choice based on? What ever type of movie HE likes. Does he consider that all the people that made, distribute and were in anyway involved with the “Sex in the City” movie, have families, and need money for food, clothing, shelter and medical care? Do you ever think about that? Shit no.

 

Neither does He. He ain’t going to see no “Chick Flick”. He likes Sci Fi, action and adventure, sophomoric comedies. He is not about to go see a “Chick Flick”. He chooses “Batman” because HE wants to see “Batman”. It is a totally selfish decision, made without any thought of who may benefit or suffer from his decision.

 

What drives a person’s spending preferences? Concern for others? Shit no. You buy what you want. The free market works best when they give you what you want. Is morality an issue? Yes. A free market cannot exist without a, sort of “moral” underpinning.

 

Does the product do what they say and you expect it will? Is it of a quality you expect and are happy with? Is it priced competitively? Is the product harmful? Is it toxic (is it Chinese?). If it doesn’t meet your requirements, you won’t buy it and in a free market, someone else will fill your demand with what you want.  So, each company knows what standard they have to meet to sell their products.

 

The free market cannot be totally free. There are necessary health and safety standards, that are a pain in the ass and add to the price of a product, but they do protect the public. If they didn’t, by now the Chinese, those masters of quality, would have killed all our infants and pets. Minimal regulation is a must. Even a fee market advocate realizes that greed, unchecked, has the potential to ultimately cause great harm. So some sort of legislated “morality” is necessary. How much is debatable.

 

But “a centralized economy, where the goal is equal rights for all and proportionate distribution of goods to all”? Socialism, which destroys the entrepreneurial drive essential for progress? The basic premise is that if I am going to get the same amount of money as the guy who picks up my garbage, why should I go to engineering school, make the effort to be a doctor or try to start a new business that would be strangled by the government before it had a chance? I wouldn’t. No one would. The economy would stagnate. But it’s clear that socialism is advocated by the Pope and the Catholic Church.

 

But, don’t confuse us with fact. “He was the first to predict the crisis in the global financial system, a “prophecy” dating to a paper he wrote when he was a cardinal, Italian Finance Minister Guilio Tremonti said.”

 

Again, the Catholic Church is so desperate for any tangible evidence that proves its credibility that from this rambling almost incoherent document that deals far more with the idea of Socialism as being superior to a free market, they some how fabricate a “prophesy”.

 

The only thing that remotely talks about economic problems is this statement: “Conversely, it has also become obvious that the decline of such discipline can actually cause the laws of the market to collapse.” Ok, a decline in discipline can cause a free market to collapse. I don’t need God to tell me this.

 

This is not the first crises the free market has been in and it won’t be the last. The Pope wrote this shit ball socialistic article in 1985. We have had several stock market bubbles pop, Japan’s economy collapsed and has been dormant for years. The US has had several recessions and smaller real estate bubbles. Economies ebb and flow. The free market lives on. I don’t need God to reveal that to me either.

 

Funny, the Pope didn’t prophesy the down fall of the Soviet Union and the ultimate failure of the great Socialist experiment.  According to the article, he foresaw the “free market crises” while advocating Socialism and then just a few years later, the greatest Socialist market in history collapses.

 

We are to believe he was really talking about the current situation in his article, 23 years ago, ignoring all the crises weather they were in the free market or the socialistic world, which happened in the interim. Yea, right.

 

To wrap it up, the Catholics manufacture a Prophesy from an article the Pope wrote, 23 years ago, on the merits of Socialism over the free market. What a bunch of fucking morons.

 

No statements in the Pope’s article in any way shape of form can be interpreted as predicting the present economic situation. Hey, if you don’t have anything, make something up.