But you have to deal with the plain sense story first.
It’s not fair for me, for example, since I believe in capitalism, to approach the bible with the intent of having it support capitalism.
The truth is that there are hints of capitalism in some of the stories of the bible, but mostly what we see are theocracies and empires with their fingers in the commercial pie, too, just like they had control over everything else.
“A decree went forth from Caesar Augustus that the entire world should be taxed.”
What does that mean? In the context of the "plain sense of the story" it is immediatly apparent that whoever wrote it could not possibly have seen it happen. It's a good story, but there's no basis for any assertion that it's an historically accurate account of events.