Editor's Note: The Moral Economy is a new series that tackles key economic topics through the prism of Catholic social teaching and its care for the dignity of every person. This is the second article in the series.
We live in the age of the aging, and our capitalist economy is struggling to cope. The Covid-19 pandemic has killed over 160,000 residents and staff in nursing homes around the United States, almost a third of total U.S. deaths from Covid-19 thus far. Those numbers raise questions about our treatment of older adults and the utilitarian cruelty of a system that sometimes puts profits before people.