Pope Francis tells us lately the free market is a wicked enemy. It must be restrained. He calls it a “new tyranny.” He insists the successes of free markets have “never been confirmed by the facts.” Ronald Reagan used to say that facts are stubborn things. On economic matters the president had a better grip […]
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Pope Francis tells us lately the free market is a wicked enemy. It must be restrained. He calls it a “new tyranny.” He insists the successes of free markets have “never been confirmed by the facts.”
Ronald Reagan used to say that facts are stubborn things. On economic matters the president had a better grip of facts than does the Pope.
I crib from an editorial in Investors Business Daily: Before Francis ventured into such territory, he should have first consulted Milton Friedman, who offered this famous gem: “In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you are talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.”
Fact: Hundreds of millions of the poor the Pope loves starved to death in the 20th century. In India. In China. In Korea. The wretchedness of their poverty was like a bottomless cesspool.
Fact: The salvation of the poor in these countries came from free markets. When India’s bureaucrats finally loosened markets the Indians learned to feed themselves — and to even sell surpluses to other countries. When Mao and his stooges finally allowed peasants to grow and sell food on the side, China began to end starvation. Francis, please take note. Alongside previous attempts to alleviate poverty, these were miracles.
Collectives failed to do this. Central control — the opposite of free markets — failed to do this.
Fact: North Koreans starve today. South Koreans prosper. The difference is that free markets thrive in South Korea. They are virtually forbidden in the North.
Fact: The tyrannical communist rulers have one by one admitted that free markets work better than central control. Today, the Castro dictators are tossing in the towel. They are gradually allowing free markets.
In the past 30 to 40 years, billions of people have finally been granted free markets. In those years more people have been lifted from abject poverty than at any time in the history of humanity.
In the modern era, there has never, ever been such progress for so many. Or for such a big percentage of the poor. Hundreds of millions have access to medicine and clean water for the first time.
These are facts, Francis. Look ’em up. The most startling fact of all is that free markets bring prosperity to more people than any other system.
Are there still poor people? Yes. Are free markets perfect? Not at all. Are they always fair? Nope.
Are there better systems for reducing poverty? There are utopian systems that promise equal wealth for all. They end up dragging everyone down to share in a lower quality of life. And they eventually fall apart. Meanwhile, the elite within these utopian systems do all right for themselves.
Pope Francis, why do you not see such facts? I suspect you see only big international businesses and huge banks as the face of free markets. In fact, many of them try to suppress free markets. Meanwhile, the guy who used to sell you a newspaper every morning in Argentina? He was a free-marketer. Give him more freedom to operate. Give the car-repair guy the freedom to own his garage and to price his work. Give all entrepreneurs fewer taxes and more freedoms and less government. Those elements of free markets work wonders.
Francis, you have faith in what you cannot see. Heaven, Hell, etc. You do not deal with facts on these matters. You rely on faith. You also have faith in central planning, government, bureaucrats. You believe they will lift up the downtrodden. The facts do not support this faith.
The facts support free markets, ugly as they are. As Friedman reminds us: “The only cases in recorded history when the masses escaped grinding poverty is when they had capitalism and largely free trade.”
If free markets have achieved this, why call them tyranny? Why not push for reforms, but also embrace them?
From Tom...as in Morgan.
Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and TV show. For more information about him, visit his website at www.tomasinmorgan.com
