# Essay 3: Qui Judicatis Terram

> Ruskin begins by satirically presenting King Solomon of the Bible as a “Jew merchant” who is successful in business but who speaks strongly about the importance of justice. His ideas, says Ruskin, are ignored today. Economists accept no notion of justice. To follow the law is all they ask. But God holds us to a higher standard, as Dante makes clear when he says that people in positions of authority (who judge the earth) must love justice diligently, not just follow the law. Ruskin then turns to an analysis of just wages. Money actually represents the right to ask someone to do a certain quantity of work for you. If you pay someone justly for their work, that person can ask you for the same amount of time as that person gave you in performing the work. Just wages help distribute wealth more fairly and will help the laboring classes advance. Finally Ruskin rejects socialism and insists that there will always be inequality among individuals. The very best individuals should hold power, and inequality will inevitably make some people rich. But those who have the most must be just. The rich have no right to the property of the poor.

▲

# « Views of a Jewish “merchant” about justice (Sec 1)

Centuries before Christ, a rich and savvy Jewish merchant left us maxims concerning wealth. These writings conflict with Modern commerce: they distinguish between well-gotten and ill-gotten wealth—which will be examined this essay. Repeatedly he states that getting rich through unjust means leads to death. He recognizes that the inevitable meeting between rich and poor may be gentle—through justice—or else destructive. Even charity is no substitute for justice.

# «Economists fail to see the necessity of justice (Sec 2)

To economists, wealth (in particular, the relationship between supply and demand) is a stream whose flow cannot be stopped. But just as we control torrents of water, we can guide the operation of wealth. Rivers that could have irrigated fields and purified the air, instead cause famine and plague—so too with the uses of wealth. Economists restrict the definition of their science to how to get rich. But there are criminal means and legal but unscrupulous means to get rich. If economists define their science as “how to grow rich legally,” they allow means which, while legal, are injust. Instead, we must grow rich justly. Our economy must rest on jurisprudence, not prudence and not divine, not human, law. In Dante, those who truly discern justice are a constellation of stars—the eye of an eagle. Those who truly love justice are the wings of the eagle. Justice is required of all men, but this has been forgotten, even by those who call themselves “saints” and “kings.” The true meaning of these titles has been lost.

# «Just wages (Sec 3)

Absolute justice may be unattainable, but we can all be sufficiently just. In this regard, I return to the topic of money. When a worker gives us a quantity of time and labor, a just wage is that what will procure equal time and labor—NOT the “prevailing wage” that results from coercion of the worker or the man who needs work done. If the reckoning must be imprecise, surely the advantage should go to the poor man, not the employer. Though a man may have more education and skill, that’s no reason to give less of his time than he’s been given. If payment comes some time after the work is done, a little more payment may be allowed. Generalizing this theory of payment in the national economy is difficult—but is still easier (and far more just) than gauging the absolute least someone would take for doing work.

# «The destructiveness of unjust wages (Sec 4)

When you unjustly hire a worker at the low prevailing wage, you can hire a second worker at the same rate—but two workers who sought a higher wage are unemployed. If the worker is hired at a just wage, this worker may now employ another, and so wealth is not concentrated but is distributed through a chain of men. Paying just wages reduces the power of wealth but, more important, it enables workers to rise on the social scale. The current system hinders advancement. The destiny of the working class is tied to this issue. For example, greviences over unjust taxes are more truly grievances over low wages resulting from competition for employment. We do not face an overpopulation problem, but rather oppression (that afflicts the oppressor as well) because we permit competition for jobs to drive down wages.

# «The impossibility of equality. The evil of worshipping riches. (Sec 5)

I insist on the impossibility of equality among men. Some men will always be superior to others. In fact, it may be best for one man to lead all others and, perhaps, even to subdue all others. We must have government and cooperation, not anarchy and competition. Property must be held securely. The poor have no right to it. Neither should the rich steal from the poor. My social program would lessen the power of wealth. The attraction of riches is already too strong. Our acceptance of political economy is a disgrace: A key reason is that this worship of Mannon violates our professed religion.