more Cargill

[james armstrong]

46." When we consider the issues involved in the relationship between
business and ethics, as well as the evolution currently taking place in
methods of production, it would appear that the traditionally valid distinction
between profit-based companies and non-profit organizations can no longer do
full justice to reality, or offer practical direction for the future. In recent
decades a broad intermediate area has emerged between the two types of
enterprise. It is made up of traditional companies which nonetheless subscribe
to social aid agreements in support of underdeveloped countries, charitable
foundations associated with individual companies, groups of companies oriented
towards social welfare, and the diversified world of the so-called “civil
economy” and the “economy of communion”. This is not merely a matter of a
“third sector”, but of a broad new composite reality embracing the private and
public spheres, one which does not exclude profit, but instead considers it a
means for achieving human and social ends. Whether such companies distribute
dividends or not, whether their juridical structure corresponds to one or other
of the established forms, becomes secondary in relation to their willingness to
view profit as a means of achieving the goal of a more humane market and
society. It is to be hoped that these new kinds of enterprise will succeed in
finding a suitable juridical and fiscal structure in every country. Without
prejudice to the importance and the economic and social benefits of the more
traditional forms of business, they steer the system towards a clearer and more
complete assumption of duties on the part of economic subjects. And not only
that. The very plurality of institutional forms of business gives rise to a
market which is not only more civilized but also more competitive."
The above is an extract from chapter four of the encyclical, Caritas  in Veritate .
I tmakes good reading after Nick Mathiason's piece in the Telegraph reported by Mark 


 		 	   		  
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