Wealth that causes poverty

Oxfam, the international confederation of 17 organizations that fight against poverty in the world, declared at the world economic forum in Davos 2015 that, at the present rate, next year the 1% of humanity will own more than the 99% that is 52% of the world wealth. Faced with this situation, we would like to ask Mr. Adam Smith, father of modern capitalism, where is the invisible hand that should seek the common interest when each one is seeking his own self-interest.

The contradiction of capitalism
While strolling along the beach a tourist, from a rich country, came upon a fisherman relaxing in his boat, peacefully smoking his pipe, as the sun started to descend into the horizon.
"Why are you not fishing?" asked the rich man.
"I’m done for the day," answered the fisherman.
"And why don’t you go again?" continued the rich man.
"Because I've already caught enough for the day".
"And why don't you fish more than you need?" persisted the rich man.
"And what would I do with so much fish?" inquired the fisherman.
"You would sell them and make lots of money; from that you could put an engine on your boat. So you could fish in deeper waters and catch even more fish, then perhaps you could have two boats and have people working for you and you could become rich like me."
"And what would I do then?" asked the fisherman.
"Ah then you could enjoy life," replied the rich man.
"And it’s not that what I’m doing right now?" concluded the fisherman with amusement.

This story is quoted, in one of the books by Anthony de Mello, with the intention of satirizing the capitalist ideology: first we create a surplus of goods; then, based on the deep psychology of human nature, through advertising and marketing we can create fictitious necessities, which lead people to consume more. The consequences of this ideology are:

• Immoral dilapidation of the planet's resources, especially in the poorest countries and without major advantages to them;
• Contamination of human ecosystem with unbreathable toxic gases resulting in greenhouse effect, causing an increase in global temperature and climatic changes, which are already being felt and are of major concern for the future.
• Deterioration of people’s health in richer countries, caused by pollution of the atmosphere, contamination of farmlands, seas and rivers, and by excessive consumption of genetically modified foods, produced with chemical fertilizers, treated with pesticides and processed with dyes and artificial preservatives.
• Widening of the gap between the rich and the poor; the wealth that ever fewer people possess is inversely proportional to the poverty that ever more and more people endure.

The world population has already surpassed 7 billion people. Environmentalists say that, if each one of these 7 billion people were to live like we do in Europe, North America and Australia, the planet could sustain the lives of its inhabitants for only 3 months; then there would be no more resources and the pollution to the sea, the atmosphere and the farmland would be such that life would not be possible.

We can conclude that our way of life is detrimental to the majority of people, who could never attain the same standard of living and is harmful to the planet in which we all live. How can this problem be solved? In order that all the inhabitants of this planet can live with dignity, and with the absolute minimum, the wealthy need to consume less so that the poor could consume the essential. As the wealthy do not want to lower the standard of living they've attained, nor do they want the planet to die, they’ve created mechanisms to make sure that the poor remain poor.

An unjust globalization
This last stage of capitalism has brought economic growth, at planetary level, but did not include uniformly all the inhabitants of the planet. There are mechanisms which make the wealthy nations even richer and the poor nations each time poorer.

The physical principle of communicating vessels tells us that if a reservoir full of water is communicating with one that is almost empty, the water level will eventually become the same in the two vessels. Globalization i.e. the intercommunication between all countries should bring about more equality, but this is not what’s happening; because at the present moment globalization, the flow of goods and people, is not free from impediments unlike in the principle of communicating vessels, but has a valve implanted. A valve is a mechanism that ensures that the flow occurs in only one direction. For example, the duodenum is a valve, between the stomach and the intestine, and its function is to make sure that food passes from the stomach to the intestine, and not return to the stomach.

If globalization followed the natural principle of the communicating vessels, it would be fair, but the existence of a type of "duodenum" between the wealthy countries and the poor ones makes globalization a modern form of exploitation.

Some years ago, the economy replaced politics as the controlling power in the world; now we are witnessing the moment in which finance i.e. making money with money without creating wealth, is replacing economy as the controlling factor. For politics, the world was a forum, a large parliament; for economy, the world was a large market; for finance, the world is simply a casino, where a few win fortunes at the expense of many others not so lucky who, even after gambling away home, spouse and children, were unable to avoid bankruptcy.

Economic-financial feudalism - We are marching blindly in the direction of an economic and financial feudalism. The fusion of large multinational companies, with the resulting monopoly of the entire sectors of the world economy, is threatening democracy; the enormous power, concentrated in the managers of these companies, escapes the criteria and scrutiny of politics and the rulings of the government in the countries where these companies are headquartered and operating.

In democracy the power rests with the people who delegate it, for a period of time, to the politicians; the people can always call them to account.  In this sort of modern feudalism the power of the people is fictitious; the true power rests on the managers of the large companies and corporations; the politicians have no real power in as much as the nowadays kings in constitutional monarchies: they reign but they do not govern. Financed and elected by endogamous elites, the politicians of today are only puppets who implement the financial interests of these managers who prefer not to show their faces and are accountable to no one, because money buys everyone and everything.

In the parliament of any country, sit members who once elected by the people are forced to prostitute for companies, groups and oligarchies so that when the time comes to pass laws, they look after the interests of these big groups, who have paid them under the table, and not the interests of the people who elected them.

Dematerialization of products - We are also witnessing a dematerialization of products. When we buy something we pay each time less for the cost of raw material and each time more for the cost of labour, marketing, advertising, packaging, trademark etc... For example, if the price of a cup of coffee is one euro, only two cents go to who picked the coffee beans, 8 to the owner of the plantation, 10 to transport, 10 to the importer, 10 to the bulk seller, 10 to the processor, 10 to the distributor and 40 to the one who sells it to the consumer. A large number of people who live at the expense of one product... Only this mechanism, by itself, makes the rich consumers live at the expense of the poor producers.

Denationalization of products - The 'made in', labelled on products, is purely fictitious and many products no longer come with this information. Each product is made from parts that are produced in different countries, especially in the poor ones where labour is cheaper and companies can run their businesses as they please without any supervision. For example, Nike used to pay 80 cents, a month, to children in India, who worked round the clock, and then sells the tennis shoes, they made, to United States for $150 American.

From the ecological point of view, it makes no sense that a kilogram of California grapes be exported to Germany by plane, generating in the atmosphere a kilo of carbon dioxide. But it happens... It is also not very logical that crabs, caught in the North Atlantic, be deshelled in Morocco, packaged in Poland and consumed in Germany...

Genesis of Terrorism
Needless to say that this situation, in the world today, is the breeding ground for the perpetual sort of terrorism we have been witnessing since September 11, 2001. Global disparity is fundamentally incompatible with global security. The fact that the "World Trade Center" was targeted for terrorism, is not a mere coincidence.

To fight against terrorism only through the army and police is to repeat, again and again, the legend of the dragon with 7 heads: for each head that was cut off 7 others emerged. The more effective fight against terrorism, throughout the world, is to work towards justice and peace.

Healthy economy at the expense of workers' health
We are starting to break away from the past balanced distribution of time: 8 hours of work, plus 8 hours of rest, plus 8 hours of social activities, when the hours of work are for many people 10 and up to 12 hours per day, we are returning to the same conditions of the first industrial revolution. The excessive production led to excessive consumption and to physical and psychological illnesses, because it reduced human beings to production and consumption machines.

This leaves little time for important aspects of life such as rest, family life, friends and amusements. Since now, to survive and pay the bills, both parents have to work and children are at school the whole day, and family only meets on weekends. The consequences are poor marital relations that end up in divorce rates increasingly higher each year and poorly educated children who end up in institutions.

Jesus said that the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. The economy is at the service of man and not the other way around. What is more important: the health of the economy or the health of the man, who sustains the economy? We could be a lot healthier, and existentially happier, if we were to work less and consume less. The economy is in fact healthy, in the western world, but at the cost of a man who is getting sicker each time, at all levels. To this concern, never sounded so truthful the words that Jesus once said: For what profits a man who gains the whole world, if he loses his life?” (Mk. 8:36).

Fr- Jorge Amaro, IMC