Here is the confirmation of the nature of the equality in verse 3. Mormon links this phrase to the previous one. To reconstruct the original phrasing, we have: “…that there should be an equality among all men; that they should let no pride nor haughtiness disturb their peace; that every man should esteem his neighbor as himself, laboring with their own hands for their support.”
Mormon’s “equality” is not political or legal equality, but an equality of social dimensions. Just as Benjamin was concerned with the unification of his people, so too is Mosiah concerned with maintaining a single society rather than a separated one.
While not mentioned, the social stratification that was a pressure under Benjamin’s reign appears to resurface as well. At the end of verse 5 and all of verse 6 enjoins the people to “labor with their own hands for their support.” As was noted previously, the social stratification that tended to occur in Nephite society was a direct outgrowth of economic pressures that spilled over into alterations of the social structure based on those new economics.
What Mosiah is attempting to hold off (as did his father, Benjamin) was a social order of elites whose livelihood did not depend upon their own labor, but upon the labor of others. In ancient Mesoamerica this did not come from a class of employers who received the labor of their employees, but of an elite class who were considered to be entitled to some of the fruit of the labor of others.
In the inter-city wars that are now known to have been a constant threat or reality among the Classic Maya, the result was the presentation of tribute from the conquered to the conquering king, and through the king to the nobility. This is one mode of receiving goods without the labor of one’s hands among the Classic Maya. Still more important, however, is the very social stratification into an elite and a subservient population. While there may have been some prohibition of inter-city warfare in Mosiah’s proclamation, the intent is most clearly internal. The internal threat comes from the creation and maintenance of an elite.