Capitalism and Socialism

Part of a Civics and Government Series

Smith Family Home Evening Lesson 2023

Agency: God Created Mankind to Be Free

• “Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power.” (Moses 4:3)

• God told Enoch that people “are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency.” (Moses 7:32)

Church Beliefs Regarding Earthly Governments

• Joseph Smith was once asked how he governed the Latter-day Saints. He replied: “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.”
• “We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.” D&C 134: 1
• “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Article of Faith 12

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Socialism (sō′shə-lĭz″əm)

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A system of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

Communism (kŏm′yə-nĭz″əm)

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An economic system characterized by the collective ownership of property and/or a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power.

Fascism (făsh-ĭz′əm)

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A system of government with central authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression, and belligerent nationalism.

Capitalism (kăp′ĭ-tl-ĭz″əm)

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An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development occurs through the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

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Socialism (sō′shə-lĭz″əm)

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Root word is “social” in reference to everything owned collectively by the society

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Communism (kŏm′yə-nĭz″əm)

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Root word: “commune” a community where everything is shared in common

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Fascism (făsh-ĭz′əm)

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Root word: “fasten” referring to government and private business fastened together

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Capitalism (kăp′ĭ-tl-ĭz″əm)

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Root word is “capital” which mean money or items of value like private property

Being Righteous Matters More than the Type of Government or Economic System

• “Therefore, if it were possible that you could have just men to be your kings, who would establish the laws of God, and judge this people according to his commandments, yea, if ye could have men for your kings who would do even as my father Benjamin did for this people—I say unto you, if this could always be the case then it would be expedient that ye should always have kings to rule over you.” (Mosiah 29: 13 )

As Great as the U.S. Constitution Is, It Needs Righteous People As Voters and Leaders

• God said, “I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose” (D&C 101:80)
• John Adams, observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Solzhenitsyn Warned Government Cannot Replace Christian Values

• Alexander Solzhenitsyn is author of “The Gulag Archipelago”
• A reference to the network of prisons in Soviet Russia
• He warned about the immorality of socialism and how it inevitably leads to communism
• “Humanism without its Christian heritage cannot resist such competition. …Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism, radicalism had to surrender to socialism, and socialism could never resist Communism.”

• “Whenever the God of heaven reveals His gospel to mankind, Satan, the archenemy to Christ, introduces a counterfeit. …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.”
• A Witness and a Warning by President Ezra Taft Benson, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1979/10/a-witness-and-a-warning?lang=eng

Appendix

Additional Scriptures on Freedom

• John 8:32 “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
• 2 Nephi 2:27 “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil.”
• “Out of the fruit of [Joseph’s] loins the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel…that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness unto light …out of captivity unto freedom.” 2 Ne. 3:5.
• Alma 48:11 “Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; …a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country”
• Alma 61:15 “The Spirit of God, which is also the spirit of freedom”
• D&C 38:22 “Hear my voice and follow me, and you shall be a free people”

“Left” and “Right” in Politics

• Capitalism is often said to be on the “right” and Socialism on the “left” in politics
• Origins of these terms are from French Revolution (1789)
• Supporters of the King on Church were seated on the right side of the assembly
• Representatives of the common people were on the left