The Bible, business and pricing practices

The Mark of the Beast
Is the price of a good or service simply the result of supply and demand? Is it morally correct to charge “what the market will bear”? And while on the issue of price, it is said that every person has their price, that everyone will perform any action, even illegal, for the right price. It seems that in the area of business, a similar attitude prevails. If all is fair in love and war, how much more acceptable is any activity in business?
The free market is seen by many as arena in which virtually anything is justified in order to maximize profit. If the consumer accepts an outrageous price, why not make the most of it? I am reminded of Revelation 13:16-17, about the mark of the beast on anyone who wishes to buy or sell. This refers to the ruling by which the Roman authorities would only give certificates to do trade to those who had offered sacrifice to the Roman gods. Is there not the mark of greed a major feature of business?

Profiteering is the same as Stealing
In the Gospel story of the cleansing of the Temple in Jerusalem, both Luke (19:41-46) and Matthew (19:12-16) record Jesus as calling the traders bandits. A more modern term would be thieves. Various commentaries on this incident note that the traders were charging iniquitous prices. For example, the sellers of animals (which were to be offered in sacrifice) charged a much higher price than was charged outside of the Temple grounds for such animals. The Jews had to offer an unblemished animal and there was pressure on them to buy from the Temple traders to ensure that their sacrifice was acceptable. Also, the Temple tax had to be paid in Jewish currency, not in Roman denomination, and the currency dealers charged huge commissions. Some priests had interests in these businesses. As a result, Jesus branded them as thieves. The conclusion is that there is such a thing as profiteering, that pricing policy is not a neutral matter, it is also a moral issue. Profiteering is tantamount to stealing. In Exodus 20:5 God commands us not to steal, confirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:18, and elsewhere.
In the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) we read how this tax collector made restitution for overcharging taxes.

R 999.99
It is has become customary to charge a cent or Rand less than the next round figure, to give the impression that the price is not actually R 1 000, for example, but something over R 900. This practice is so commonplace that it may have lost its original intention, but is remains an example of the tendency to be deceptive in the market place. The business world favours impersonality because we are out to make as much as possible, even if it is from our friends. But all is not acceptable in the market place, even if we are taking advantage of people in a more impersonal way, via inflated prices. In the end, it is tantamount to stealing.
The weights of certain products are varied in order to disguise comparative prices, although many stores do proved information on price per uniform weight.

Other Deceptions
Another form of deception is to hide the price of individual components by quoting one total price, making it deliberately difficult for the consumer to do comparisons with competitive products. There is also transfer pricing, for example, when a company sends goods across national boundaries to another subsidiary, purposefully inflating the price it charges its subsidiary so that it can transfer money to another country, or reduce its tax burden in the receiving subsidiary which has some unutilised tax benefits. Do we respect the laws of a country or do we feel we can do what we can to get around “nuisance” legislation?
Certain businesses such as lawyers, for example, can add to the total price they charge for their services by performing a lot of unnecessary activity for which the client is charged, as clients a charged by time. Doctors and dentists can also perform many tests in order to increase the total bill for their services.
The debate on pricing can be complex. For example, if a producer of CD players adds some chrome to their product, which costs them R 50, are they justified in adding R 500 to the price because the product looks “sexy”? At what stage can we say there is profiteering, charging unfair prices by means of some deception?

Monopolies
Monopolies can charge much higher prices, as there is little or no competition. We have seen how in 2008 and 2009 two major bread producers were fined R99 million and R 45 million respectively for cartel activities involving price-fixing and sharing out the market, and a third colluder awaits a fine as well. It is unfortunate that this practice occurred in regard to such a basic food product as bread.
Where there is a major national supplier and some smaller more local ones, it is easy for the larger supplier to do massive discounting in a small geographic area as it can make up profit in the rest of the market. But the local suppliers can easily be driven out of business as they operate only in a limited area. In this way pricing can be used to drive smaller competitors out of business.

Bribery
It also seems an unwritten rule that all arms deals involve bribes to suppliers, negotiators and decision influencers. These bribes probably total billions of USA Dollars each year. The temptation to bribe in order to win business is huge, and there is certainly more bribery in South Africa than we are aware of. Many accept bribes as a normal part of business.

Price Rigging
In some cases prices can be manipulated in order to obtain some advantage. For example, a manager of a large share portfolio may ramp up the price of some of its leading share holdings at quarter end or month end in order to obtain a higher total fee, as fees are based on market value at the end of certain periods. Even if they make a loss on the shares they bought, the overall fees will be significantly higher.
Passive Price Takers
South Africans generally seem to accept prices without any action against the companies concerned. Newspapers do report changes in the cost of baskets of goods, otherwise we complain a bit and simply pay up. There should be regular media attention focussed on large price increases and the companies should be asked to justify these rises. It is more than a question of supply and demand, there is often deception and greed at the root of the matter. I have noted elsewhere that with the sharp decline in the petrol price there has been no downward adjustment of prices, which the lower fuel costs could enable.
Some personalities command huge prices. For example, the Vatican newspaper commented on the sale of a soccer player for the equivalent of R 300 million and branded it as an offence against the poor, against reason and human dignity. We read of celebrities spending $ I million on a birthday and elsewhere read of hunger and lack of food security.

Some Conclusions
It is very much in the area of pricing that there is much scope for dishonest manipulation. This is all the more serious when the product or service is an essential one. The quotation from the prophet Amos (8:4-7) seems particularly apt:

Listen to this you who crush the needy and reduce the oppressed to nothing,
You who say, “When will the New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our wheat. Then we can make the bushel-measure smaller and the shekel-weight bigger by tampering with the scales.
We can buy up the wheat for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and even get a price for the sweepings of the wheat.”
Yahweh has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Never will I forget anything they have done.”

We are left with the unmistakable conclusion that dishonesty will not be tolerated by God, and that we will have to answer for this at our judgement. There is more in the Bible about business than we expect. There are also books on business ethics, which derive their ideas from Biblical sources and theological reflection. In the end, we all have to face a judgement, and our activities in the world of business will most certainly be part of that judgement. We do not really get away with anything dishonest, if we evade attention in this life, we will face the consequences in the next. I do not like to portray the image of God as a vengeful Creator, yet we have free will and the abuse of this will, especially if it hurts the masses and the poor, will not be forgotten. And of course, money is probably the favourite false god of all. I end with a quotation from the letter to Timothy (1 Tim 6:9-10):

“People who long to be rich are a prey to trial; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and harmful ambitions which plunge people into ruin and destruction. ‘The love of money is the root of all evils’ and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.”