Tom, I liked your response to the question very much. Propadeutic also mentioned some resources that may be valuable, although I am not familiar with them.
The other responses are locked into the dualism of "modernism". In that thinking one must be either liberal or conservative.
What we need is a completely Christian approach to the subject. I'm not a scholar or a Christian economist, so I can't answer the question. I do know that we need to focus on how the Word of God would have us respond.
All of our life is redeemed by Jesus. There is no secular neutrality in the public sphere of politics or economics. We need to seperate our thinking from the run-of-the-mill attitudes of current thought. We are made new in Christ.
One of my favorite quotes comes from the Dutch thinker of about 100 years ago named Abraham Kuyper. He said: "There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!"
One last thought. About a month ago I was reading a part of Calvin's Institutes. In a section about charity he said: "Profits should be distributed according to the law of Love". I like that very much. It is not communisim or socalism. Nor is it a standard view of liberal or conservative. It seems to me that that statement is responsible to the Word of God.
