From earlier this month:
Pope Francis calls tax cuts for the wealthy a 'structure of sin' | Daily Mail Online
The actual address in full (it can be read in English, top far left) here:
Discurso del Santo Padre con ocasión de la Conferencia "Nuevas formas de solidaridad", organizada por la Pontificia Academia de las Ciencias Sociales (5 de febrero de 2020) | Francisco
Relevant excerpts:
Pope Francis calls tax cuts for the wealthy a 'structure of sin' | Daily Mail Online
Pope Francis has called tax cuts for the wealthy a 'structure of sin' before telling a conference at the Vatican the 'rich world can and must end poverty'.
At a seminar on economic inclusion hosted by the Church on Wednesday, Francis insisted that poverty could be beaten if the world's rich play a full part in ending inequality.
At a seminar on economic inclusion hosted by the Church on Wednesday, Francis insisted that poverty could be beaten if the world's rich play a full part in ending inequality.
The actual address in full (it can be read in English, top far left) here:
Discurso del Santo Padre con ocasión de la Conferencia "Nuevas formas de solidaridad", organizada por la Pontificia Academia de las Ciencias Sociales (5 de febrero de 2020) | Francisco
Relevant excerpts:
I would like to start with a factual fact. The world is rich and yet the poor increase around us. According to official reports, this year’s global income will be almost $ 12,000 per capita. However, hundreds of millions of people are still mired in extreme poverty and lack food, housing, medical care, schools, electricity, drinking water and adequate and indispensable sanitation services. It is estimated that approximately five million children under 5 this year will die from poverty. Another 260 million children, will lack education due to lack of resources, due to wars and migrations. This in a rich world, because the world is rich.
If there is extreme poverty in the midst of wealth - also extreme wealth - it is because we have allowed the gap to widen to become the largest in history. These are almost official data: the 50 richest people in the world have an equity equivalent to 2.2 billion dollars. Those fifty people alone could finance the medical care and education of every poor child in the world, whether through taxes, philanthropic initiatives or both. Those fifty people could save millions of lives every year.
The main message of hope that I want to share with you is precisely this: these are solvable problems and not lack of resources. There is no determinism that condemns us to universal inequity. Let me repeat: we are not doomed to universal inequity.
Sin structures today include repeated tax cuts for the richest people, often justified in the name of investment and development; tax havens for private and corporate profits; and, of course, the possibility of corruption by some of the largest companies in the world, not a few times in tune with some ruling political sector.
Every year hundreds of billions of dollars, which should be paid in taxes to fund health care and education, accumulate in tax haven accounts, thus impeding the possibility of the dignified and sustained development of all social agents
In this context where the development of some social and financial sectors reached levels never seen before, how important it is to remember the words of the Gospel of Luke: “To him who is given much, much will be demanded” (12,48). How inspiring it is to listen to St. Ambrose, who thinks with the Gospel: «You [rich] do not give your thing to the poor, but you are giving him what is his. Well, the common property given in use for all, you are using by yourself »( Naboth 12,53). This is the principle of the universal destiny of goods, the basis of economic and social justice, as well as the common good.
If there is extreme poverty in the midst of wealth - also extreme wealth - it is because we have allowed the gap to widen to become the largest in history. These are almost official data: the 50 richest people in the world have an equity equivalent to 2.2 billion dollars. Those fifty people alone could finance the medical care and education of every poor child in the world, whether through taxes, philanthropic initiatives or both. Those fifty people could save millions of lives every year.
The main message of hope that I want to share with you is precisely this: these are solvable problems and not lack of resources. There is no determinism that condemns us to universal inequity. Let me repeat: we are not doomed to universal inequity.
Sin structures today include repeated tax cuts for the richest people, often justified in the name of investment and development; tax havens for private and corporate profits; and, of course, the possibility of corruption by some of the largest companies in the world, not a few times in tune with some ruling political sector.
Every year hundreds of billions of dollars, which should be paid in taxes to fund health care and education, accumulate in tax haven accounts, thus impeding the possibility of the dignified and sustained development of all social agents
In this context where the development of some social and financial sectors reached levels never seen before, how important it is to remember the words of the Gospel of Luke: “To him who is given much, much will be demanded” (12,48). How inspiring it is to listen to St. Ambrose, who thinks with the Gospel: «You [rich] do not give your thing to the poor, but you are giving him what is his. Well, the common property given in use for all, you are using by yourself »( Naboth 12,53). This is the principle of the universal destiny of goods, the basis of economic and social justice, as well as the common good.
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