Making money for many has nothing to do with morals, but rather with efficiency and productivity. This is a viewpoint that at times seems all too familiar in the economic sphere. Often in seeking to generate wealth, entrepreneurs, employers and business people consider nothing but the bottom line – how much money can be made.

What often happens is that employees and customers feel the effect of this separation between morality and the economy. Employees are treated unfairly, for example having to work long hours away from their families with insufficient remuneration, or consumers having to pay exorbitant prices for necessary goods. 

However, “the Church’s social doctrine insists on the moral connotations of the economy, Pope Pius XI, speaks of the relationship between the economy and morality. ‘Even though economics and moral science employs each its own principles in its own sphere, it is, nevertheless, an error to say that the economic and moral orders are so distinct from and alien to each other that the former depends in no way on the latter. 

Certainly the laws of economics, as they are termed, being based on the very nature of material things and on the capacities of the human body and mind, determine the limits of what productive human effort cannot, and of what it can attain in the economic field and by what means.

Yet it is reason itself that clearly shows, on the basis of the individual and social nature of things and of men, the purpose which God ordained for all economic life.  But it is only the moral law which, just as it commands us to seek our supreme and last end in the whole scheme of our activity, so likewise commands us to seek directly in each kind of activity those purposes which we know that nature, or rather God the Author of nature, established for that kind of action, and in orderly relationship to subordinate such immediate purposes to our supreme and last end.’”

What this tells us is that when engaging in any economic activity we must remember our purpose in life. God made us to show forth his goodness; we are made primarily for his honour and glory.

We are required to show our goodness by sharing ourselves and our possession with others in all that we do. The final destination Christians work towards is sharing in God’s everlasting happiness in heaven. If we bear this in mind we will see that the relationship between morality and economics is necessary, indeed intrinsic.

“Economic activity and moral behaviour are intimately joined one to the other.” While it is necessary to distinguish between morality and the economy, this does not mean that they have to be separated, on the contrary, there needs to be an important reciprocity.

Just as in the area of morality one must take the reasons and requirements of the economy into account, so too in the area of the economy one must be open to the demands of morality: “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 centre, and the purpose of all economic and social life.” The purpose of the economy is not found in the economy itself, but rather in its being destined to humanity and society.

The economy, in fact, whether on a scientific or practical level, has not been entrusted with the purpose of fulfilling man or of bringing about proper human coexistence. Its task, rather, is partial: the production, distribution and consumption of material goods and services.

“The moral dimension of the economy shows that economic efficiency and the promotion of human development in solidarity are not two separate or alternative aims but one indivisible goal.

Morality, which is a necessary part of economic life, is neither opposed to it nor neutral: if it is inspired by justice and solidarity, it represents a factor of social efficiency within the economy itself. The production of goods is a duty to be undertaken in an efficient manner, otherwise resources are wasted.

On the other hand, it would not be acceptable to achieve economic growth at the expense of human beings, entire populations or social groups, condemning them to indigence. The growth of wealth, seen in the availability of goods and services, and the moral demands of an equitable distribution of these must inspire man and society as a whole to practice the essential virtue of solidarity, in order to combat, in a spirit of justice and charity, those ‘structures of sin’ wherever they may be found and which generate and perpetuate poverty, underdevelopment and degradation. These structures are built and strengthened by numerous concrete acts of human selfishness.”

Next week we continue to look at Morality and the Economy, focussing on our individual and collective responsibilities.

Interested in purchasing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church? Please contact the Catholic Commission for Social Justice, Archbishop’s House – 622-6680.