Thursday, July 21, 2005

CAFTA: A Tool to Fight Poverty

Fire of Liberty

Reverend Robert Sirico, the president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty, has a wonderful argument from a Catholics standpoint on why the passage of CAFTA is good for the US and Central America. In his great piece over at National Review Online, Rev. Sirico notes that a bevy of priests in Central America have made it their destiny in life to rally against free trade because they're fearful that it will cause certain folks to become wealthy while shutting others out of the process. What these priests fail to realize is that free trade is one of the best weapons in fighting poverty in the developing nations. By opening up markets and eliminating tariffs, these nations will see greater investments and more jobs for the people living in these individual states. So instead of states accepting vast sums of money from wealthy nations or placing people on the dole, they can ensure their own stability by establishing an environment to smiled one the spirit of human initiative. Lets just say they'd be following the "Feed a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat a lifetime," philosophy in improving their lot. I think the good Reverend put it best in the following paragraphs:
The governments of both the United States and Latin American nations who would join in a CAFTA are doing the right thing by removing barriers to economic growth and development. This role of the Centesimus Annus:

Economic activity…presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence, the principle task of the State is to guarantee this security … Another task of the State is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the State but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society.

If there is one thing we know for sure, the quickest way out of poverty is by allowing the impoverished a fair place in the markets. It also means everyone, legislators and rights activists, Americans and Latins, ought to recognize the individual’s right to economic initiative. Bishop Ramazzini criticized the fact that “trade discussions begin by asking how policies will be good for business and economic growth.” But what is economic growth if not the greater productivity of the human worker in meeting the needs of others? Should we not encourage the freedom that allows workers and entrepreneurs to thrive in creating the wealth that makes social development possible?
I'd say you can't get any better than that. Thank God we have folks like Rev. Sirico putting things like CAFTA in perspective.

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