The Pope and Wealth's "Legitimate Redistribution"

The global collapse in poverty debunks the Pope's argument.

by Rod D. Martin
May 9, 2014

I have mentioned on occasion the new Pope's advocacy of what might as well be liberation theology.  My learned and esteemed Catholic friends have protested that the media has taken him out of context.

It seems doubtful they'll be able to maintain that position today.

The Pope's outright demand to UN leaders that governments "redistribute wealth to the poor" -- what he called "legitimate redistribution" -- may well demonstrate a heart for the crushing burden of poverty, and to that degree I could not applaud him more.  But it also shows a breathtaking lack of understanding as to how that poverty came to be, and of the empirical certainty that his prescription will multiply it across the globe.

As I have written elsewhere, you can't redistribute wealth that doesn't exist.  And wealth is created by producers, people who risk what they have to create more than there is.  In doing so, they create jobs, because their vision is bigger than any one person can make real.