Consumers, who in many cases have a broad range of buying power well above the mere subsistence level, exercise significant influence over economic realities by their free decisions regarding whether to put their money into consumer goods or savings. In fact, the possibility to influence the choices made within the economic sector is in the hands of those who must decide where to place their financial resources. Today more than in the past it is possible to evaluate the available options not only on the basis of the expected return and the relative risk but also by making a value judgment of the investment projects that those resources would finance, in the awareness that “the decision to invest in one place rather than another, in one productive sector rather than another, is always a moral and cultural choice”.744John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS 83 (1991), 839-840.
Purchasing power must be used in the context of the moral demands of justice and solidarity, and in that of precise social responsibilities. One must never forget “the duty of charity ..., that is, the duty to give from one's ‘abundance', and sometimes even out of one's needs, in order to provide what is essential for the life of a poor person”.745John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS 83 (1991), 839. This responsibility gives to consumers the possibility, thanks to the wider circulation of information, of directing the behaviour of producers, through preferences — individual and collective — given to the products of certain companies rather than to those of others, taking into account not only the price and quality of what is being purchased but also the presence of correct working conditions in the company as well as the level of protection of the natural environment in which it operates.
The phenomenon of consumerism maintains a persistent orientation towards “having” rather than “being”. This confuses the “criteria for correctly distinguishing new and higher forms of satisfying human needs from artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality”.746John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS 83 (1991), 839. To counteract this phenomenon it is necessary to create “life- styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments”.747John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS 83 (1991), 839. It is undeniable that ways of life are significantly influenced by different social contexts, for this reason the cultural challenge that consumerism poses today must be met with greater resolve, above all in consideration of future generations, who risk having to live in a natural environment that has been pillaged by an excessive and disordered consumerism.748Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37: AAS 83 (1991), 840. V. THE “NEW THINGS” IN THE ECONOMIC SECTOR