The visit by Pope Francis to America stimulated lots of debate and discussion about economic policy and environmental issues. This debate about politics, economics, and the environment will continue and should continue because policies based on misinformation and economic misunderstanding would actually hurt the poor.

George Will talks about the Pope’s “fact-free flamboyance.” The Pope is critical of free market capitalism and believes that the Earth is becoming “an immense pile of filth.” This is the hyperbole we have come to expect from environmentalists warning about climate change at the twenty climate change conferences that have been held since 1995. George Will reminds us that Francis grew up in Argentina where socialist policies reduced the GDP of that country from 14th in the world to 63rd today.

Gerard Francis Lameriro explains that freedom is absolutely essential to alleviating the poverty of the world. In his book, Renewing America and Its Heritage of Freedom, he makes the moral case for freedom. Freedom also leads to economic growth.

In just twenty years, the number of people living in extreme poverty ($1.25 a day or less) in developing areas around the world dropped from half (50%) to less than a quarter (22%). Approximately 700 million people who were living in extreme poverty no longer do so because of capitalism and free trade.

Arthur Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute describes the 2200 percent increase in America’s GDP from 1820 to 1998. During that same time, life expectancy rose from 38 years to 78 years. This was due to economic growth that comes from economic freedom.

The same freedom that made America prosperous and has raised those in extreme poverty to a better standard of living can help other people and nations. This is the message we should be sending to leaders around the world.