How do Law, Economics, and God make us free?

The Rule of Law creates stability, meaning it creates a society in which your actions will have reasonably predictable consequences. Without the Rule of Law, or without the laws of a country following predictable and non-discriminatory principles, people live in fear of the government and are hardly able to focus on their own goals.

A lack of the Rule of Law could explain the chaos and lack of development in some parts of Africa. Likewise, a lack of the Rule of Law can lead to the rule of tyrants or dictators, like Pol Pot in Cambodia who targeted people who were educated. Both of these examples demonstrate how a a lack of the Rule of Law leads to a lack of stability. In turn, this unstable system reduces an individual's incentive to invest in education or other pursuits since their investment won't be able to develop.

So Law gives a stable platform from which people can set and pursue their own goals.

Economics is a platform to understand how scarce resources can be allocated to help us pursue our goals. Economic efficiency maximizes the goods and services available for society to use. More bread, gasoline, cleaning services and everything else that has a price can help us achieve our goals if we use them right. Food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and administering programs all require work. Hopefully we enjoy some aspects of the work, but that doesn't change the fact that we'd like to accomplish some of this mundane work with less time and resources so that we have more for other things. A good economic system will produce the goods and services we need and want for the lowest cost possible. This is done through creating optimal personal incentives (rewarding people's hard work) along with allowing specialization (allowing trade).

So basically, economics lets us do things like produce food, and thus we are free to live and do something besides be dead.

While I do believe that God expects us to learn a lot about freedom from academic fields, when we turn to Him, His love supersedes the principles of law and economics as we normally think of them.

"Now, if a man murdereth, behold will our law, which is just, take the life of his brother? I say unto you, Nay. But the law requireth the life of him who hath murdered; therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world." (Alma 34:11-12)

To me this means that though I'm not good enough to be saved by my own adherence to righteous laws, the Savior loves me so much that He will still save me, if I follow His path of faith and repentance.

God also overcomes typical economic problems. He told his Apostles to "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. . . Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. . . even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." (Matthew 6:25-29)

I have seen blessings in my own life that are evidence that God is taking care of me, forgiving me even when I don't deserve it and providing what I need to keep pursuing my dreams.

Understanding how good principles of law and economics function has helped me to understand some of God's dealings, and to better appreciate the miracles that He performs which I don't fully understand.