Denver Catholic

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2026 | DENVER CATHOLIC 14 E C O N O M Y BY PAUL WINKLER Founder & President Atollo Conversations about the economy tend to focus on measurable things: prices, wages, profits, productivit y, growth and shareholder returns. These things matter. Families need sufficient income to thrive, and businesses must remain profitable to survive. Yet when employees are working full-time and still struggle to meet their families' basic needs, we are forced to ask a deeper question: Who does the economy serve? CST says the human person. The Second Vatican Council taught us that "man is the source, the center and the purpose of all eco- nomic and social life" (Gaudium et Spes, 63). Products, profits and shareholder returns are necessary, but they are means rather than the ultimate end. The economy must serve people not only as consumers of goods and services, but also as workers who participate in creating them. Pope St. John Paul II applied this principle directly to human labor. In Laborem Exercens 6, he wrote that "work is ' for man' and not man ' for work.'" Work produces goods, services and economic value, but the worker is always a person whose dignit y must be upheld through meaningful work, safe working conditions and just wages. Catholic Social Teaching, therefore, does not ask us to become unquestioning defenders of an economic system. It provides a moral lens through which economic life must be judged. A business reverses the proper order when work- ers become merely instruments of production or expenses to be minimized. A just wage is therefore more than an eco- nomic transaction. It recognizes the worker as a person with responsibilities, relationships and a vocation. Leaders must certainly con- sider market conditions and the needs of the enterprise, but also whether compensation enables workers and their families to live with dignit y, so they can participate and contribute meaningfully in societ y.

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