Slavery

Together with moral injustice towards the slaves, slavery might not have been very efficient (perhaps the two ideas are connected?)

In Adam Smith's 1776 The Wealth of Nations he explains that it is usually cheaper to hire labor than to own slaves, because the employer has to keep the worker alive either way, and a free man will manage his own living costs more efficiently than overseers would manage the slave's living costs. "Under such different management, the same purpose must require very different degrees of expence to execute it. It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves."

Thus, his explanation for why slavery ever happened was

"the love of domination and authority and the pleasure men take in having every thing done by their express orders, rather than to condescend to bargain and treat with those whom they look upon as their inferiors and are inclined to use in a haughty way; this love of domination and tyrannizing, I say, will make it impossible for the slaves in a free country ever to recover their liberty." And we have seen that true liberty certainly wasn't achieved right after legal emancipation!

I believe that Adam Smith had some reason with these ideas, because they seem to be in harmony with God's desire for us to be free and overcome our tendency towards unrighteous dominion. (Doctrine and Covenants 121:39)

John Taylor (president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1880-1887) said "I was not born a slave! I cannot, will not be a slave. I would not be slave to God! I'd be His servant, friend, His son. I'd go at His behest; but would not be His slave. I'd rather be extinct than be a slave. His friend I feel I am, and He is mine:-a slave! The manacles would pierce my very bones-the clanking chains would grate upon my soul-a poor, lost, servile, crawling wretch to lick the dust and fawn and smile upon the thing who gave the lash! . . . But stop! I'm God's free man: I will not, cannot be a slave!"

I am so grateful to be free to follow God by my own choice! I believe that exercising faith and choosing to follow Him can be a great source of peace and joy. And as we achieve this joy, God is efficiently achieving His purpose for us (2 Nephi 2:25, Moses 1:39).