CHAPTER III ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL LIFE
63.
In the economic and social realms, too, the dignity and complete vocation of
the human person and the welfare of society as a whole are to be respected and promoted.
For man is the source, the center, and the purpose of all economic and social
life.
Like
other areas of social life, the economy of today is marked by man's increasing
domination over nature, by closer and more intense relationships between citizens,
groups, and countries and their mutual dependence, and by the increased
intervention of the state. At the same time progress in the methods of
production and in the exchange of goods and services has made the economy an
instrument capable of better meeting the intensified needs of the human family.
Reasons
for anxiety, however, are not lacking. Many people, especially in economically
advanced areas, seem, as it were, to be ruled by economics, so that almost
their entire personal and social life is pennated with a certain economic way
of thinking. Such is true both of nations that favor a collective economy and
of others. At the very time when the development of economic life could
mitigate social inequalities (provided that it be guided and coordinated in a
reasonable and human way), it is often made to embitter them; or, in some
places, it even results in a decline of the social status of the
underprivileged and in contempt for the poor. While an immense number of people
still lack the absolute necessities of life, some, even in less advanced areas,
live in luxury or squander wealth. Extravagance and wretchedness exist side by
side. While a few enjoy very great power of choice, the majority are deprived
of almost all possibility of acting on their own initiative and responsibility,
and often subsist in living and working conditions unworthy of the human
person.
A similar
lack of economic and social balance is to be noticed between agriculture,
industry, and the services, and also between different parts of one and the
same country. The contrast between the economically more advanced countries and
other countries is becoming more serious day by day, and the very peace of the
world can be jeopardized thereby.
Our
contemporaries are coming to feel these inequalities with an ever sharper
awareness, since they are thoroughly convinced that the ampler technical and
economic possibilities which the world of today enjoys can and should correct
this unhappy state of affairs. Hence, many reforms in the socioeconomic realm
and a change of mentality and attitude are required of all. For this reason the
Church down through the centuries and in the light of the Gospel has worked out
the principles of justice and equity demanded by right reason both for
individual and social life and for international life, and she has proclaimed
them especially in recent times. This sacred council intends to strengthen
these principles according to the circumstances of this age and to set forth
certain guidelines, especially with regard to the requirements of economic
development.1
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