A Catholic Framework for Economic Life and Labor
- The economy exists for the person, not the person for the
economy.
- All economic life should be shaped by moral principles. Economic
choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or
undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the
family and serve the common good.
- A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and
vulnerable are facing.
- All people have a right to life and to secure the basic
necessities of life (e.g. food, clothing, shelter, education, health
care, safe environment, economic security).
- All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive
work, to just wages and benefits, to decent working conditions as
well as to organize and join unions and other associations.
- All people, to the extent they are able, have a corresponding
duty to work, a responsibility to provide for the needs of their
families and an obligation to contribute to the broader society.
- In economic life, free markets have both clear advantages and
limits; government has essential responsibilities and limitations;
voluntary groups have irreplaceable roles, but cannot substitute for
the proper working of the market and the just policies of the state.
- Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action
where necessary, to assure opportunity, meet basic human needs and
pursue justice in economic life.
- Workers, owners, managers, stockholders, and consumers are moral
agents in economic life. By our choices, initiative, creativity and
investment, we enhance or diminish economic opportunity, community
life and social justice.
- The global economy has moral dimensions and human consequences. Decisions on investment, trade, aid and development should protect human life and promote human rights, especially for those most in need wherever they might live on this globe.
The American Catholic Bishops. November 1996.