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Pope Benedict & Capitalism

The quote going around from the Pope's recent address, at least concerning the negatives of capitalism, is this:

And we can also see the same thing happening in the West, where the distance between rich and poor is growing constantly, and giving rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.

I haven't read the whole critique yet, which is admittedly a disadvantage in commenting on it. But my main question is whether he considers the personal dignity clause of his statement to be caused by the distance between the rich & poor?

There's much to explore here. Does the gap between the rich and poor automatically lead to a degradation of personal dignity? That was something I hadn't thought of before. Until now I viewed the gap between the rich and poor as irrelevant compared to the matter of the numbers of poor, i.e. whether an economic system gives the greatest welfare to the greatest number of people. Does the best economic system limit the total number of poor or is it one that narrows the gap between the rich and poor? Does the fact that most people can't handle (due to jealousy) income differential, does that mean that society should arrange itself with that (very human tendency) in mind?

This is that difficult line-drawing between individual freedom and good of society. If a drug is abused by 90% of people, it will be prohibited. At 50% probably. At 20%? Maybe not. There's some percentage at which it will, but it surely varies by drug depending on factors like tradition and how powerful the lobbies defending it are.

The Pope's statement reminds me of Russia, and their current internal combustion. Given the control of thugs and monopolies, I'm not sure how capitalistic Russia is. But it is obviously more so now than under Communism -- has the resulting disaster (skyrocketing alcohol abuse and mortality) there been due to the introduction of capitalism?

Does the mere fact of someone having much more than the next person result in a feeling of degradation of personal dignity, as in the lower middle class versus the super rich? Does that gap so impact the sense of the lower middle class person's sense of dignity that he resorts to escape through drugs and alcohol?

Or, is it this - the fact that one of the key components of capitalism is marketing. Is advertising the evil, in that it creates, in consumer goods, the promise of happiness, a happiness goods can't satisfy?

A quick search of Catholic blogdom reveals other posts that I'll read more thoroughly as I get time, after reading all of the Pope's remarks:

From Dumb Ox Daily News.

Eric Scheske implies that Russia's problems are temporary, displaying the growing pains that all economies going to capitalism experience:

Has anyone else noticed that it seems like a disproportionate number of bizarre stories like these are coming out of former Soviet bloc countries? I assume it’s because they’re schizoid countries: old country/modern world, poor but capitalism coming to make ‘em rich, socialism to free market. Tough growing pains, but humor fodder for the rest of us. If you feel guilty, ship money to the Church in Eastern Europe. I think it’s one of the best charitable causes in the world right now.

Evangelical Catholicism takes a dimmer view of capitalism.

Rerum Novarum writes:

There is no problem with Capitalism that a good dose of authentic Christian morality cannot solve. Capitalism produces wealth like no other economic system. But it is a mirror of the values of the society that employs it. [Michael Forrest]

A post from Detente.