Regarding
your questions concerning the Bahá'í attitude on various economic problems,
such as the problem of ownership, control and distribution of capital, and of
other means of production, the problem of trusts and monopolies, and such
economic experiments as social co-operatives: the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh and
'Abdu'l-Bahá do not provide specific and detailed solutions to all such
economic questions, which mostly pertain to the domain of technical economics,
and as such do not concern directly the Cause. True, there are certain guiding
principles in Bahá'í Sacred Writings on the subject of economics, but these do
by no means cover the whole field of theoretical and applied economics, and are
mostly intended to guide future Bahá'í economic writers and technicians to
evolve an economic system which would function in full conformity with the
spirit, and the exact provisions of the Cause on this and similar subjects. The
International House of Justice will have, in consultation with economic
experts, to assist in the formulation and evolution of the Bahá'í economic system
of the future. One thing, however, is certain: that the Cause neither accepts
the theories of the Capitalistic economics in full, nor can it agree with the
Marxists and Communists in their repudiation of the principle of private
ownership and of this vital sacred right of the individual.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter
dated 10 June 1939 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation:
‘Redistribution of Wealth’, by the Research department of the Universal House
of Justice’)
