This is a great example of the free market.marc wrote:I'll give this one more shot. I did watch the video, by the way and I will add that I was a capitalist for decades. I loved and engaged in the free market starting when I was about the age of a cub scout. I went door to door offering services for a fair exchange. I would mow lawns or wash cars for two dollars, four or five dollars or whatever folks felt my labor was worth.
I made pretty decent money and even had regular customers. I won't get into the following decades where I became a paperboy, started my own businesses, owned an S corporation and an LLC, etc. Yeah, I made money the same way as always where it was equitable for both myself and my clients. I bought and sold goods and services, etc. Loved the free market.
marc wrote: 26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.
This is also a great example of the free market. You just don't realize it.
You believe that your first example IS the free market. However, that is simply how you chose to engage. The latter example is just as much a product of free markets as the first. You simply are choosing to engage differently. Your values have changed, and now you engage in trade in a more charitable manner.
Zion is the result of people in a free market choosing to consecrate. Markets are not the construct of man. They exist as a result of our god given nature. In the scripture above, it indicates we should give according to wants. The WANT or NEED creates a market. How that want or need is filled (or not filled) is the result of the choices of those involved... a free market.