Free Market Themes

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Title: Free Markets and Biblical Themes
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Definitions
Free Market is a type of market that allows the buyer and the seller to decide what products should be produced, how they should be priced and without any regulation from the government. The cost of commodities in a free market is determined by the demand among consumers. For example, if consumers have a high demand for a fast moving product like soft drinks, the selling price will remain low. However, if the product is a slow selling commodity such as Mainframe computers, the cost will be relatively high.

Biblical Theme is defined as laws of the Bible to be followed when facing certain situations in real …show more content…

4.1). The free market looks to acquire goods at the cheapest possible price. Hence, the wage provided cannot be a fair wage since a similar factory run by the government would pay a considerably higher wage for the same position. In addition, the free market often chooses to procure raw materials from outsourced suppliers who use any means of employment including slavery of children. Nestle and other prominent chocolate brands are supplied by West African farmers who use unpaid, captive child slaves to work their farms. The application of the biblical theme of fair wages is almost non-existent in the free market economy. Its application would result in reduced profits; this is not why the free market …show more content…

It expects employers to provide amicable and able support to employees (NIV, Eph. 6.9). It also forbids any harsh treatment or threats. Remarkably, the free market workforce is most often motivated by the element of fear; fear of losing their jobs. While the motivation works in influencing long and pressurizing shifts for meager compensation, it conflicts critically with the biblical theme. Implementation of this theme will release workers from their fear and eventually would make demands of their own to accommodate weekend offs or even paid vacations. Furthermore, the implementation seeks to diminish profit margins and make the company susceptible to its competition. Hence, application of biblical themes in this situation is impractical according to free market principles.

Job Layoffs
Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy details the conditions of a worker being set free from a landlord. Moreover the landlords are instructed to provide the exiting worker generously (NIV, Deut. 15.12-15). The concept of layoff is to save labor cost for the company; hence, a generous payoff is unlikely. Hewlett-Packard provided their let off employees a handsome severance compensation however this is not a regular practice. The free market economy does not advocate the generous compensation of those let off since their intention for layoff is driven by increasing profit.