Dalrymple finds much to object to in the Pope’s recent economic pronouncements:

Most egregiously, the Pope quotes from St John Chrysostom:

Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and

take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods that we hold,

but theirs.

This could only be true if an economy were a zero-sum game, if my wealth were your poverty and vice versa. But if the world has learnt anything since the death of St John Chrysostom one thousand six hundred years ago, it is that an economy such as ours is and ought to be dynamic rather than static. I am not poor because Bill Gates is rich; as it happens in enriching himself he enriched me, though the ratio of his wealth to mine is probably greater than the ratio of my wealth to the poorest person in my society. I do not care; it does no harm to me unless I let it do me harm by dwelling upon it. In the meantime, I have enough to eat and much else besides.

And the opening description of Dalrymple’s visit to an outlet mall is not to be missed.