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; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. III,
Economics, Agriculture, and Related Subjects)
