Just and Holy Principles

Definition:

Free Enterprise: an economic system in which private individuals and corporations produce and distribute goods as they wish with little or no government intervention.

In a free enterprise, free market, or capitalistic economic system, goods are produced and distributed according to the laws of supply and demand. According to this theory, the relationship between the quantity of a product that producers supply and the quantity of a product that consumers demand determines the market price of the product. Supply and demand change depending on various natural market forces such as consumer habits, new technology, and specific wants and needs. When a government or anyone else places artificial regulation on the buying and selling of goods, the free market is disrupted and consequences, intended or not, follow.

For example, the U.S. government and foreign governments, including the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), increasingly regulate the production and distribution of oil to American companies; thus, the price of oil, which eventually translates into the price we pay at the pump, is largely determined by the politics between these countries rather than the supply of and demand for oil around the world.

Another example: employees work for employers who need labor. The wage an employee wants and the wage employers are willing to pay is affected by various market forces such as type of work, need for work, skills needed for a particular job, location, benefits, etc. The price agreed upon by the employees and the employers generally reaches an equilibrium point, or the highest wage employees can earn that an employer is still willing to pay and the lowest wage employers can pay that the workers are willing to accept. When the government influences wages with a minimum wage for lower-skilled workers or a wage cap for CEO's, the free market is disrupted. The equilibrium price is no longer attainable and the effects of that disruption, positive or negative, ripple through the economy. Economists and politicians must decide how free the market should be and how much regulation benefits the economy as a whole as well as the individual.

The Founders:

Thomas Jefferson: I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty. (Jefferson, Thomas letter to John Adams July 7, 1785)

James Madison: I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, and hold it as a truth, that commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive and impolitic - it is also a truth, that if industry and labour are left to take their own course, they will generally be directed to those objects which are the most productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the most enlightened legislature could point out. (James Madison speech to the Congress April 9, 1789)

The Brethren:

Ezra Taft Benson: Communism introduced into the world a substitute for true religion. It is a counterfeit of the gospel plan. The false prophets of Communism predict a utopian society. This, they proclaim, will only be brought about as capitalism and free enterprise are overthrown, private property abolished, the family as a social unit eliminated, all classes abolished, all governments overthrown, and a communal ownership of property in a classless, stateless society established. (Ezra Taft Benson, “A Witness and a Warning,” Ensign, Nov. 1979)

N. Eldon Tanner: Learn to distinguish between needs and wants. Consumer appetites are man-made. Our competitive free enterprise system produces unlimited goods and services to stimulate our desire to want more convenience and luxuries. I do not criticize the system or the availability of these goods or services. I am only concerned about our people using sound judgment in their purchases. We must learn that sacrifice is a vital part of our eternal discipline. (N. Eldon Tanner, “Constancy Amid Change,” Ensign, Nov. 1979)

References:

→  Ezra T. Benson, "A Vision and a Hope for the Youth of Zion," Apr. 1977