Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

some thoughts on business why is there business? because there is demand and supply and so there is an opportunity to make profits. so if there were infinite supply, would there still be business to be made? no. no more business. what about if there were no more demand? would there still be business? no. also no more business. so therefore, if there were no demand or infinite supply, then there would be no more business cos there would be no more profits(sounds quite elementary) unless i'm mistaken in any of the logic involved here... in heaven i imagine there would be no more demand because we would have all that we needed, and more in fact. i would also imagine that there would be no problems with supply because all that we ever needed would be in abundance. (actually, what would we need in heaven? God would be all that we need no?) so therefore i conclude that there would be no more business in heaven. or at least no more business as we understand it now. business is a product of the fall it would seem. think about the foundations of business theories and economics. it's based on self-interest. for the theories and laws to hold, we have to assume that people are looking out for themselves. to make more money. it assumes that we have to be selfish. that we want to make the maximum profit. maximum sales, minimum cost. if people sought the good of others, would the theories still stand? if people sought NOT to make the most money, would the laws still make sense? i suspect they would not. so, in a fallen world where business is unavoidable. what would a biblical business look like? or what would a God-pleasing business look like? i would begin by considering how businesses came about in the first place. to survive i need basic necessities. i trade what i have with others to meet my needs. how things were traded depended on various circumstances. for some items, people would be willing to give more things. and for others, less. under different situations, people would give more or less too. if i wanted more, i needed to know how to get more for less. and so profits started coming into the picture. money became invented as a marker to show how much something was worth. 1 cow is worth 20 chickens which is worth 20 dollars. so one chicken is worth 1 dollar. money gave a basic quantifiable value to things. now we want to spend as little to make goods and sell them for a much as possible to make the most profit so that we can live most comfortably. we have moved from "just meeting our needs" to "over-fulfilling our wants". so in extreme cases exploitation and cheating enter the equation to maximise our profits. but think about it. if somebody is going to be rich, then that means that the wealth is going to be concentrated in that somebody. the world only has that much resources. this would inevitably mean that somebody is going to be poor as a result. hence maximising profits would likely mean that the money is coming from somewhere, somehow, and that would likely mean that somewhere, someone is poorer. the exception maybe would be in the case where someone makes the goods all by himself and sells them. like a man who grows lots of fruits by himself and sells them to a lot of people. then everybody would only be poorer by a bit and that man would be much richer. but anyway. back to a less imbalanced business plan. as in one that sought to maintain a balance instead of attaining maximum profit. the balance would be that i sold my goods for what they cost so that i don't make a loss nor do i make a profit. the objective would be so that i simply had enough for what i need to survive. this i think would bring us back to the original trading my goods for your goods so that i had the necessary various goods for survival. like i have 3 milk, you have 3 chicken and he has 3 rice. we all trade with each other so we all have 1 milk chicken and rice. now in a fallen world, that would be too idealistic. but would it be possible that instead of selling goods to maximise profits i sold to make just enough profit to sustain the business and myself? that means that i sell goods to cover their production cost, the operation cost, and make just a little bit more to buy goods for myself to survive. how would this look like in practice? i'm not sure. but i would like to try it one day. just some thoughts.