The Catholics tell us that perhaps we should work on this pre-economic datum’. In reality, we do not disagree at all. Willingness, both individual and collective, is a fundamental element of the project. Whether or not you are a believer, if you care about the fate of the planet, you must work on what the economists see as exogenous preferences.
The market is nothing more than an instrument for realising these preferences; but it is a powerful instrument. 42. 'Recent experience has shown that countries which did this (i.e. which isolated themselves) have suffered stagnation and recession, while the countries which experienced development were those which succeeded in taking part in the general interrelated economic activities at the international level’ (Centesimus annus, 33). 43.