Conventional definition of a free market economy: Adam Smith: In the absence of external coercion, to parties enter into an exchange because it would be mutually beneficial for them to do as long as it is bi-laterally voluntary and informed.
Freedom is pursuing whatever you want without the interference of others. (negative definition)
All that matters for a market to be free is that individuals have real wants and can pursue them without any interference.
Christian perspective:
Augustine: Freedom is being fully wrapped up in the will of God who is the condition of human freedom.
The key to true freedom is not just following whatever desires we happen to have, but cultivating the right desires.
The issue here is not just wanting too much, it is wanting without any idea of what we want.
To desire with no objective end of desire is to desire nothing and to become nothing.
Filling empty holes- filling the void.
Power- marketing ( commodifying goods that cannot be commodified)
power also evident in employer/ employee relations. considered good business practice to maximize the disparity of power between employers and employees to increase profit margin.
In a world of consumption without ends, it is assumed that the consumer will want to maximize power at the expense of the laborer.
So when is a market free? human flourishing
social costs
implications??
what kinds of exchanges are conducive to human life on earth
churches
promoting economic practice that maintain close connections among capital, labor, and communities.
shalom- human dignity

Consumer culture: the ability to turn virtually anything into a commodity- something that can be bought and sold .
what really characterizes consumer culture is not attachment to things but detachment. people do not hoard money they spend it; people do not cling to things; they discard them and buy more.
restless pursuit of something new
pursuing meaning and identity and a way of connecting with other people
detachment:
we used to make things, now we buy everything. anything you made in your home?
negative attitude about work
increased volume and variety of goods but detached from the creation of things
Most of us would never deliberately choose our own material comfort over the life of another person. most of us do not consicusly choose to work others to death for the sake of lower prices of the things we buy
invisible
we dont have conenctions to the people who make our stuffand no conenction to the people that sell them
It is enough. I am happy with what I have.

Consumerism represents a constant disatisfaction with material things.. restlessness
created things should point to their creator
Augustine: we are passionate desiring creatures and this is good. created things, though essentially good will always fail to fully satisfy.
all things point to God
and only he can truly satisfy
Everyone must consume to live
the question is: what kinds of practices are conducive to an abundant life for all
Communion: the indiviudal conusmer of the eucharist does not take christ into themselves, but is taken up in christ. instead of consuming the body of christ, we are consumed by it. becoming the body of christ means we become food for others.
implications: making things
donating time and money to those in need
fair trade
a sacremental view of the world sees all things as part of Gods good creation- things become less disposable and have more meaning
communion with God and other people

globalization: process of worldwide economic, political, and cultural integration that has taken an accelerated force in the last few decades
free trade: detachment from the local
TNC's
everything is available but nothing matters (24 different kinds of oJ)
the one and the many… incarnation (individual is universal and the universal is individual)
Christ is the infinetly integrating one who makes room in himself for everything truly human. very different from gloablization that takes every particular or difference and tries to make it universal
without God there is nothing really unique; the tematation will always be to absorb the individual into the universal, the person into an all encompassing nature.
Moving away from detachment from particular places and communtities has contributed to the depersonalization of the global economy and a proper aesthetic of the particular places the human person back at the center of economic relations.
call as christians is to sustain fors of economy, community, and culture that recognize the universality of the individual person
pg 87 CSA

scarcity: hunger is written nto the conditions under whihc economics operates.. there is never enough to go around. Economics will only be the science of scarcity as long as individuals continue to want. and we are told that human desires are endless.
The solution to the restlessness of desire is to cultivate a desire for God, the eternal in whom our hearts will find rest.
Consumerism is the death of christian eschatology.there can be no rupture of the status quo. no inbreaking of the kingdom of God, just superficial novelty.

The eucharist tells another story about hunger and consumption. it does not begin with scarcity but the one who came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10)
we are fed and become food for others
Economy of communion page 98
focolare began sponsoring ordinary, for profit businesses that divide their profits into three equal parts: a third for direct aid to the poor, a third for educational project nad a third for the development of the business. more than 700 businesses follow this model