SECTION
1 Economic Development
64.
Today more than ever before attention is rightly given to the increase of the
production of agricultural and industrial goods and of the rendering of
services, for the purpose of making provision for the growth of population and
of satisfying the increasing desires of the human race. Therefore, technical
progress, an inventive spirit, an eagerness to create and to expand enterprises,
the application of methods of production, and the strenuous efforts of all who
engage in production-in a word, all the elements making for such
development-must be promoted. The fundamental finality of this production is
not the mere increase of products nor profit or control but rather the service
of man, and indeed of the whole man with regard for the full range of his
material needs and the demands of his intellectual, moral, spiritual, and
religious life; this applies to every man whatsoever and to every group of men,
of every race and of every part of the world. Consequently, economic activity
is to be carried on according to its own methods and laws within the limits of
the moral order," so that God's plan for mankind may be realized.3
65.
Economic development must remain under man's determination and must not be left
to the judgment of a few men or groups possessing too much economic power or of
the political community alone or of certain more powerful nations. It is necessary,
on the contrary, that at every level the largest possible number of people and,
when it is a question of international relations, all nations have an active
share in directing that development. There is need as well of the coordination
and fitting and harmonious combination of the spontaneous efforts of
individuals and of free groups with the undertakings oœ public authorities.
Growth is
not to be left solely to a kind of mechanical course of the economic activity
of individuals, nor to the authority of government. For this reason, doctrines
which obstruct the necessary reforms under the guise of a false liberty, and
those which subordinate the basic rights of individual persons and groups to
the collective organization of production must be shown to be
erroneous.4
Citizens,
on the other hand, should remember that it is their right and duty, which is
also to be recognized by the civil authority, to contribute to the true
progress of their own community according to their ability. Especially in underdeveloped
areas, where all resources must urgently be employed, those who hold back their
unproductive resources or who deprive their community of the material or
spiritual aid that it needs-saving the personal right of migration-gravely
endanger the common good.
66.
To satisfy the demands of justice and equity, strenuous efforts must be made,
without disregarding the rights of persons or the natural qualities of each
country, to remove as quickly as possible the immense economic inequalities,
which now exist and in many cases are growing and which are connected with
individual and social discrimination. Likewise, in many areas, in view of the
special difficulties of agriculture relative to the raising and selling of
produce, country people must be helped both to increase and to market what they
produce, and to introduce the necessary development and renewal and also obtain
a fair income. Otherwise, as too often happens, they will remain in the
condition of lower-class citizens. Let farmers themselves, especially young
ones, apply themselves to perfecting their professional skill, for without it,
there can be no agricultural advance.5
Justice
and equity likewise require that the mobility, which is necessary in a
developing economy, be regulated in such a way as to keep the life of
individuals and their families from becoming insecure and precarious. When
workers come from another country or district and contribute to the economic
advancement of a nation or region by their labor, all discrimination as regards
wages and working conditions must be carefully avoided. All the people,
moreover, above all the public authorities, must treat them not as mere tools
of production but as persons, and must help them to bring their families to live
with them and to provide themselves with a decent dwelling; they must also see
to it that these workers are incorporated into the social life of the country
or region that receives them. Employment opportunities, however, should be
created in their own areas as far as possible.
In
economic affairs which today are subject to change, as in the new forms of
industrial society in which automation, for example, is advancing, care must be
taken that sufficient and suitable work and the possibility of the appropriate
technical and professional formation are furnished. The livelihood and the
human dignity especially of those who are in very difficult conditions because
of illness or old age must be guaranteed.
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