What Pope Francis gets wrong about corporate ‘greed,’ global hunger, and inflation

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “Pope Francis recently made a statement on World Food Day that in effect blamed markets and capitalism for the persistence of world hunger.

'The fight against hunger demands we overcome the cold logic of the market, which is greedily focused on mere economic profit and the reduction of food to a commodity, and strengthening the logic of solidarity,' he tweeted.

With such a massive platform, the pope has an obligation to better inform himself before wading into economics affairs. https://t.co/nuFYR1u1rD

— FEE (@feeonline) October 20, 2021

'We must adapt our socio-economic models so they have a human face, because many models have lost it,' the pope continued. 'Thinking about these situations, in God’s name I want to ask… The big food corporations to stop imposing monopolistic production and distribution structures that inflate prices and end up withholding bread from the hungry.'

In Pope Francis’s telling, the 'cold logic of the market' is the main barrier to eliminating world hunger. But this argument betrays a woeful misunderstanding of how markets operate and how past achievements in reducing global poverty have been achieved.”

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