Human trafficking is a profitable business. Why not pursue it?

If business and investing primarily are about making money, I’d suggest drug trafficking. Or even human trafficking which is even more profitable. Hopefully you will think or shout: No, never! I won’t do that.

But why not? I have asked this question to thousands of people around the globe, and answers are usually about values and faith. Yes, we do not engage in these dehumanizing businesses because they are against our Christian values. But that begs the question: what are our values? Have we thoroughly identified biblical values that should underpin our actions in business and investing? What are the Judeo-Christian values, themes and narratives that have stood the test of time – a few thousand years?¹

It is beyond a favorite Bible verse or passage. It is not merely about what’s in the Bible, but rather what the Bible teaches. And are these teachings thoroughly grounded in our tradition, accepted by the church throughout the centuries?

This article will highlight three of these foundational values: creativity, dignity and freedom. They are a basis for an economic framework, and they also have implications on our views on business and investing.

The triune God is the Creator, who created in community and for community. He created good things, mainly in the physical arena. After each production day he did quality control. We are created in God’s image, to create in community for community, with God and for people. To create good products and services.

This is linked to human dignity. Carrots are not created in God’s image, but we are, and with that comes dignity. Essential to human dignity is freedom and the ability to be creative - in art, cooking, innovation, relationships, and business. It is an active role, and work is deeply divine and deeply human. To provide jobs is to create space for human dignity. Handouts don’t give dignity, jobs do. Handouts can suppress creativity and work, and thus lead to a loss of dignity. Providing jobs to jobless is to restore human dignity.

But creativity presupposes freedom. To be a free agent, to be free to write and publish poems, to mobilize people for social change, and be free to steward resources in business and investments. No freedom, no dignity. It is a spectrum, and it has consequences for flourishing of people and nations.

Creativity, dignity and freedom are related and intimately connected. But we must be mindful of what freedom is, and is not: “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” (Pope John Paul II)

Or as Eleanor Roosevelt put it: “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.”

So, as human beings we are free to make choices, to do drug trafficking or do business and investments for God and the common good. But we need to constantly be guided by immutable godly values like creativity, dignity and freedom.

Human trafficking is the antithesis of freedom and dignity. It is creativity in business which has turned destructive and dehumanizing. Unemployment is a root cause to human trafficking. That’s why creating jobs with dignity in high-risk areas for trafficking is essential in combatting modern-day slavery.²

But getting people out of trafficking means we need to be able to answer the following question: out of trafficking and into what? There needs to be a job at the other end, which implies workplace creativity, restored dignity and true freedom. Because freedom is more than a socio-economic issue. That’s why God is part of our value proposition.³

Be creative, respect and restore human dignity, and pursue freedom to do good.

Mats Tunehag

References:

[1] The BAM A – Z booklet contains 26 of these values. Free download at https://matstunehag.com/bam-material-in-different-languages/

[2] To learn more, see Freedom Business Alliance: https://www.freedombusinessalliance.com/

[3] See article “Jesus – An Integral Part of Our Value Proposition”, https://www.thestewardinvestor.com/articles/jesus-an-integral-part