{"product_id":"2940151492485","title":"Quaker Testimonies \u0026 Economic Alternatives","description":"Friends have long tried to make the conduct of their business life consistent with their religious beliefs. It has not been easy in capitalist systems where self interest and materialistic motives become the main features of business enterprise. It can be still more difficult in a time of big corporations and command bureaucracies. But though exploitation and the domination of the many by the few continue in capitalism, the system persists, in part because acceptable alternatives are not easily found. The alternatives offered by state socialism appear to many observers as worse, or at least no better, than capitalism. The socialist state can manifest its own forms of dominance and exploitation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe forget that we are part of the continuing mystery of change itself. We contribute to it everyday by our own activities. We are constantly involved in creating our own fate whether we like it or not. We pay our taxes each year; we go about our daily business, buying and selling things in the marketplace. We are always engaged in some way in the corporate system; we act within it in some measure to either perpetuate the dominance or to overcome it through economic alternatives. We either contribute toward corporate exploitation in our daily transactions or we choose to contribute toward social change and the transformation of the system. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReligious testimonies in history suggest that people are not simply passive creatures who are victims of the forces of nature or the marketplace. At the spiritual root of their being, people are change-makers as well as observers of the world. The evidence in western countries suggests that people in their spiritual condition are creators of the world in which they live.","brand":"Pendle Hill Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47149675053296,"sku":"2940151492485","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940151492485_p0.jpg?v=1764010801","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940151492485","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}