Regarding money, there seems to be only one problem and only one rule that rules it all. The problem is how to obtain more money. The rule is, get as much money as possible, as quick as you can and as easily as you may. Money rules everything and everyone and has been ruling practically uncontested for centuries. But is that a good rule? Should the church be concerned with it? Shouldn't the church leave secular matters to the secular world (Caesar's) and be concerned only with the things of God's? On the other hand, Jesus had a lot to say about money. Shouldn't then the church live and help to live by Jesus' understandings on money? Should only Christians view money differently or should the world change its understanding of money? How should we deal with money so that the flow of wealth can fuel the right social development?
What is mine is truly mine but not exclusively mine because all is for all.
In extreme neeed one could help himself from the property of others but never steal.
Giving the poor what they need is not charity, not even generosity but merely justice.
Self interest is an insufficient basis for the foundation of the economy.
Consumerism, speculation, tax evasion and waste are social sins.
Money is not an end in itself and so, it should not be pursued for its own sake . Money represents the wealth that results from work and should be put at the service of the dignity of the person. Often the economic wellbeing of a society is wrongly understood as the landmark of development, neglecting, in the process, a more integral and wholesome development of society.
The concept of the common good also helps us understand that private property is a fundamental right, but not an absolute one. It should yield to the overall good of all in society.
As our societies become more polarized between ideologies that stress either the unrestrained pursuit of wealth or the unrestrained equal distribution of wealth, we need to understand wealth as the means it is to its proper end, which is the development of the persons who form those societies.
If societies create pockets of poverty where people do not have enough to lead a life of dignity, those societies need to revise their policies and practices until no one is 'poor,' for 'no one should be poor among us.' At the same time, societies that ignore the dignity of work, where the worker is driven by his responsibility, and create societies where everything is leveled out, nullifying the individual contributions to societies, will also need to recalibrate their policies and practices.
The reality checks that our economies seem to be missing are both the conditional character of private property and the common good. What is mine is not exclusively mine but inclusively ours. Thus, those I must include first are the ones who, with no fault of their own, are the most disadvantaged in our societies. This means that generosity at both the individual and social level is not an optional icing on the cake but a necessary practice without which societies cannot stand, or at least, fairly so.
Christians, in practice, seem to be also lost at to what is the Christian way to deal with money. They seem to be torn between two extremes: Either a naive perception that God wants you as blest with riches as possible, ignoring in the process the right Christian assessment of wealth; or a certain quasi Manichaean attitude against money as a necessary evil with the shame and guilt that comes with being rich.
The ultimate question for our individual and collective wealth is thus: Are we using it in a way that makes societies with better persons? What changes should we embrace for that to happen? The changes expected is not simply increasing "economies" but a culture that stays free from greed and free to put such economies at the service of those in need.