Development
- Posted by NETWORK on July 9th, 2008 filed in Development, Issues, NETWORK
We live in a globalized world in which the “free” market rules created by the developed world regularly result in a race to the bottom-movement of business to places where unfair labor and environmental exploitation go unchecked. U.S. trade, aid, and debt policies and practices should reflect the principles of human dignity, stewardship, solidarity, and preference for those who are poor and vulnerable.
Engineered by global elites in to the advantage of monomaniacal corporations, our current economic order is predicated on systemic inequality, and the exploitation of laborers and the environment. The benefits of our current economic and financial systems disproportionately accrue to corporations, share-holders and the developed elite while laborers and farmers in the global south are relegated to the indignity of poverty.
Unfair trade agreements and subsidies, lack of environmental and labor protections, intractable debt burdens, inadequate development assistance, and the primacy of profit above all other considerations contribute to the chronic poverty and inequality which divides humanity along the lines of the healthy and wealthy and the sick and indigent.
Catholic Social Teaching
“Trade and investment systems that safeguard the global commons, natural resources and biodiversity, place a high premium on sustainability, account for environmental and social costs in the pricing of goods and services, and acknowledge that every form of life has intrinsic value and belongs to our global heritage.”
IWG on Trade and Investment
“Peace must be born of mutual trust between nations rather than imposed on them through fear of one another’s weapons. Hence everyone must labor to put an end at last to the arms race, and to make a true beginning of disarmament, not indeed a unilateral disarmament, but one proceeding at an equal pace according to agreement, and backed up by authentic and workable safeguards.”
The Church in the Modern World, Pope Paul VI, 1965, #82
“The solidarity which binds all men together as amembers of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger misery and pverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.”
Mother and Teacher, Pope John XXIII, 1963, 157
“If development is the new name for peace, war and preparations for war are the major enemy of healthy development of peoples. If we take the common good of all humanity as our norm instead of individual greed, peace would be possible,”
On Social Concern, Pope John Paul II, 1987, 10
Learn More:
NETWORK on Development
USCCB & Catholic Relief Services Campaign to End Global Poverty
USCCB’s Backgrounders:
Jubilee USA Network
An alliance of more than 80 religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty and injustice in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Jubilee calls for a definitive cancellation of international debts and the restoration of right relationships between nations.
The One Campaign
ONE is a campaign that raises public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries. ONE believes that allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries.
