Population and prosperity

"In practice," Tedeschi contended, "this was the origin of the crisis, which eventually led to the so-called 'sub-prime' excesses. The financial instrument of debt leverage, the expansion of credit, was used to compensate the lack of growth in the economy caused by the low birth rate."

Fr. Robert Sirico, president of Acton Institute, told LifeSiteNews.com that Tedeschi was approaching the global recession with an insight “that comes from a knowledge of how a market functions: the human person is at the base and should be the end of all market activities.

“The economy is essentially human beings making choices based on their subjective knowledge of their circumstances as to what will benefit themselves and their families. To the extent that people are free to produce more than they consume, they enrich themselves, they enrich those with whom they exchange.”

Sirico explained that the Vatican economist's view opposes that of population control groups, who subscribe to a different vision of economic activity, what he called a Marxist or “redistributivist” paradigm: “If there is a pie and there are more people added to the pie then there is more poverty."

But the reality, Sirico says, is that "the pie is dynamic.Mr. Tedeschi is saying isthe human person is himself creative. Human beings are not mouths that consume, but minds that produce."

Sirico added that Pope John Paul II hit on this very point in his social encyclical Centesimus Annus, when he wrote that “Man is man’s greatest resource.”

Because human beings are also creative producers, the excess of what they produce becomes the basis for trade in the economy, and the creation of wealth. "Contrary to population controllers obsessed with overpopulation, it is population dense cities Hong Kong and Singapore that are rich, while sparsely populated areas of the globe such as Angola are very poor".

Sirico pointed out that 1.2 million unborn babies are killed in the United States alone through abortion – approximately 52 million since 1973. “That is all those producers and consumers in the market," he said. “By eliminating younger generations, you are eliminating your future; the superfluous wealth they will produce and all the creativity. Remember that it is creativity that produces wealth.

"So when you eliminate human beings, you eliminate their creativity, you eliminate their discoveries, and you are placing yourself in great jeopardy, because you cannot just stay still. You will go back economically.”

Political leaders unwilling to make hard choices and cut government budgets, Sirico warned, are also likely to "inflate the money supply to continue operating. The resulting devaluation of money would increasingly impoverish the status of the middle class and completely decimate the poor."

In our view there are three basic pillars which underpin a free and prosperous nation: Free enterprise (which includes 'small' government, low taxation and the principle of subsidiarity), traditional moral and family values, and strong defence. Knock out any one of these and the country is endangered, economically, socially and politically. How to harmonise the strategies of libertarian free-marketeers with those of conservative pro-family lobbyists is a perennial question which is exercising minds among Republicans and Tea Party activists in the USA, and is a question which is also relevant to the Australian political scene.

It is a pity that business associatons and free-market think tanks in Australia don't realise that pro-family conservatives are their natural allies.