Pope Francis has called for higher taxes for billionaires, saying it is often the wealthiest members of society who oppose social justice “out of pure greed.”
The 87-year-old leader of the Catholic church also renewed his calls for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that would award everybody a guaranteed monthly payment, regardless of their employment situation.
“Wealth is made to be shared, to create and promote fraternity,” he told a meeting of various grassroots organizations gathered from five continents on Friday. The event, the World Meeting of Popular Movements (WMPM), was the tenth to be held at the Vatican, which hosts an annual discussion with the pope to discuss ways to tackle social injustice around the world.
Pope Francis delivers his Sunday Angelus blessing to the crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on September 22, 2024, in Vatican City, Vatican.
Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images
The UBI theory is the idea of giving each citizen a payment, whatever their role in society. Proponents argue that it would alleviate poverty and related social problems, such as crime, by giving each person enough to cover their needs, regardless of their social status, employment situation, or abilities. Critics argue it would create a “culture of entitlement,” discourage productivity, and be expensive for countries to maintain.
Speaking at the Vatican’s WMPM event on Friday, the Independent Catholic News website reported that the pope said: “We all depend on the poor, even the rich… Unfortunately, it is often the wealthiest who oppose the realization of social justice or integral ecology, out of pure greed… Accumulation is not virtuous. Distribution is. Jesus did not accumulate; He multiplied.”
The pontiff went on to slam those who exploit people or nature and then benefit further personally from “tax evasion.”
He also repeated his previous hopes for UBI to be implemented, saying it was not just “compassion” but was actually a form of “strict justice.” He concluded by saying: “How I wish that the new generations may find a much better world than the one we have received.”
Newsweek has reached out by email to the Vatican seeking further information and comment about Pope Francis‘ claims.
It’s not the first time that the pope has enthusiastically supported UBI. He even wrote a book called Let Us Dream with British journalist Austen Ivereigh back in 2020, that said UBI could be a way out of the pandemic, which had left swathes of people struggling as businesses were shuttered during lockdowns.
On Easter Sunday of that year, the pope published a letter describing the plight of various “informal” workers, such as construction workers, dressmakers, street vendors, and caregivers. “This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out,” he told them.
The idea of UBI has been floated at various times by philosophers throughout history, but the idea has gained increasing traction as developed societies ponder how Artificial Intelligence (AI) may upend the traditional model of human work and its associated pay packets that allow people to make a living. Many white collar workers fear AI will make their jobs obsolete as the technology becomes more sophisticated and the idea of UBI has become popular with those working in Silicon Valley’s tech industries, according to Business Insider.
Various countries, including Finland and Canada, have run UBI experiments. And a large U.S. study, backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, was launched in 2020. The idea was to test how a guaranteed income scheme would affect Americans and their communities; some 3,000 participants in two different U.S. states were given $1,000 per month to spend however they wanted. The experiment ended this year, with researchers revealing that participants increased their spending on basic needs and supporting others, and were more likely than the control group to move to a better-quality house, get medical care, look for a new job, or pursue further education.
