Pope Francis Is A Socialist

Roman Catholic Pope Francis has entered the political arena by supporting the confiscation and redistribution of income, presumably not just from those that work hard to the poor, as has been happening for the last 100 years; but also from rich countries to poor countries.   If the Pope feels so strongly about all of this, he should sell or lease out all of the Catholic Church's art work and or other treasures and properties and give the money to the poor.  The Pope is showing his left wing Socialist colors; but also his lack of understanding of History and Economics.  The only problem is that not all Catholics are Socialists.

In fact, many of us are Conservatives that support limited government, lower taxes and less regulation as the best way to stimulate economic growth, create jobs and deal with poverty.   When we hear Pope Francis speak of redistribution of income, it causes us to close our check books and stop donating money to the Church.   The Pope should never forget that American Catholics, in particular, finance the Church.   It would be very easy for us to give to other charities that do good works, rather than fill the Church baskets on Sunday mornings.  That is certainly this Blogger's inclination, particularly after all the sex settlements that the Church has had to pay.  The reality is that we have spent Trillions of dollars in the United States on the War on Poverty since 1965, adding to our National Debt and redistributing income and the poverty rate is higher today, under Obama, than it was three decades ago.   These Socialists Schemes just do not work.   We continue to throw good money after bad, rather than implement common sense free market solutions to create jobs as the best way to diminish poverty in America and around the world.   

We need to reward those that work by allowing them to keep more of their hard earned money.  Yes, there are billionaires and companies in a Capitalist society that control a lot of wealth; but most of them also already pay a lot of taxes.  More important, these are the people and companies that create the jobs necessary to a vibrant middle class.  As such, they should not be demonized when in fact, they are heroes.  Once and for all, it is critical to recognize that the poor are not poor because the rich are rich.  The able bodied poor are poor because they lack education and marketable job skills and or because they have made very bad life choices.   Just giving them more Welfare and other Entitlements will not break the cycle of poverty.   If it did, we would have no poverty in America today. 

Specific to poor countries, it is usually corruption that retards economic growth.  Poor countries have been given billions of dollars in Western aid for many years; yet most of that money has ended up in the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt leaders.  Giving even more money is hard earned tax dollars down the toilet.  Clearly, Pope Francis should stick to theology and stay out of Economics, which he clearly does not understand.  Jesus said render on to Caesar what is Caesars.   Translation, the Pope should stay out of politics and mind his own business.   It says in the Bible that if we give a man a fish he eats for a day; but if we teach a man to fish he eats for a life time.  Our goal should be to break the cycle of poverty, not just continue perpetuating it with even more Entitlements whether given to able bodied individuals, or to poor countries.  Jesus also said there will always be poor among us.  Given what we have spent both within and outside the United States, that adage certainly seems true.