Business Ethics

Prices may seem like a convenience of the modern market system—but they also have a moral dimension that people of faith should seek to understand. In this post, Kevin Brown explores the idea of supply and demand and price ceilings in the marketplace.

Trade is good. When it comes to creating the conditions necessary to allow others to thrive, it is very good. Moreover, a free market allows for productivity, specialization, and open trade to occur. This naturally allows for innovation and growth, market outcomes that people of faith can reasonably support.

To so easily separate our business activity from our faith identity is wrong. But why? In this post, we provide three assumptions that, if true, would suggest that business activity can, and should be, intricately tied to our identity.

How do we determine when it is appropriate to rely on markets and market logic, and when it isn’t? Many areas of our life are governed by non-market norms. What are the risks, and the moral implications, of letting markets infiltrate these areas?

A little pain in the short-term is ultimately beneficial in the long-term. But like so many other things, when it comes to complex market systems—the immediate answer may not be as simple as we would like to think. Who is experiencing the “short-term” pain? What is the nature of that pain? These questions should be particularly important to people of faith.