Page 43 - Reflexions of African Bishops and Priests

Douglas wrote in 1920 in Credit–Power and Dem-
ocracy: “Social Credit is a socio-economic phil-
osophy wherein consumers, fully provided with
adequate purchasing power, establish the policy
of production through exercise of their monetary
vote. In this view, the term economic democracy
does not mean worker-control of industry. Remov-
ing the policy of production from banking institu-
tions, government, and industry, Social Credit en-
visages an ‘aristocracy of producers, serving and
accredited by a democracy of consumers.’”
Don’t confuse ends and means
While quoting John Paul II’s Message of the World
Day of Peace for the year 2000, Benedict XVI writes
about the need for “further and deeper reflection on
the meaning of the economy and its goals.” (Caritas
in Veritate, no. 32.) It is important not to confuse ends
and means. The goal or the end of economics is to
allow goods to meet the needs; not only to produce
the necessities of life but to also make sure that these
goods actually reach the people who need them. We
have to be sure that the goods, once produced, do
not remain on the shelves and starvation occurs. It is
therefore a matter of both production and distribution:
goods must be produced and after, distributed. There
are products in plenty today; it is their distribution that
is defective. It is not capitalism per se (private prop-
erty, free enterprise) that is defective, but the financial
system it utilizes that is flawed.
In his first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est (God
is Love, no. 25-26) Benedict XVI wrote: “In God’s
family, no one ought to go without the necessities
of life... The aim of a just social order is to guaran-
tee to each person, according to the principle of
subsidiarity, his share of the community’s goods.”
The objective of economics is not to supply jobs
or to make profit and economic growth at any cost. All
of these – jobs, profits, economic growth – are only
the means; the end is to satisfy human needs in the
respect of the dignity and freedom of the human per-
son. If goods can be produced with less human labour,
thanks to machines and new technology, that is won-
derful. It will allow man to give his leisure time over to
free activities of his own choosing. (This is providing
he is given an income to replace the salary he lost
with the installation of the machine. The Social Credit
dividend is designed for this.)
Profit is not the ultimate end, but is also a means.
The end or goal, we repeat, should be the satisfaction
of human needs. Benedict XVI writes: “Profit is use-
ful if it serves as a means towards an end that pro-
vides a sense both of how to produce it and how to
make good use of it. Once profit becomes the ex-
clusive goal, if it is produced by improper means
and without the common good as its ultimate end,
it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty.”

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