"Unto this last"
Both Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. credited a collection of essays by John Ruskin for dramatically shaping the way they viewed both politics and the economy.
Unto This Last was first published in 1860 as a series of articles in "Cornhill Magazine". Even though it is 143 years old, I believe that Ruskin's critique of classical economics is just as fresh and important as if it was written yesterday. As such, I think it deserves a place on any green's bookshelf.
The title, Unto this Last refers to Christ's parable of the vineyard labourers from Chapter 20 of Matthew's Gospel. For those who are not acquainted with the New Testament, this is the story of the farm owner who hired different groups of day labourers at dawn, breakfast, noon, and supper to work in his vineyards.
When dusk came and it was time to pay up, he gave the same amount of money to each---no matter how many hours of work each had done. When some of the fellows hired at dawn grumbled and said that this is unfair, the landowner told them to mind their own business.
I assume that Ruskin choose this title because the parable specifically undermines conventional attitudes about wages and suggests the need for an ethical dimension in economic transactions.
One of the first issues Ruskin examines is the concept of "wealth". He argues that wealth has two components: material possessions and power.
Briefly stated, wealth can consist of how much food, housing, clothing, etc, a person owns. In addition, it also consists of the ability to get other people to do things for you.
The thought-example that he employs is to consider a wealthy land owner. If the other people in his county are all well-off independent farmers, he will have a problem finding servants to work in his fields.
If, on the other hand, they are impoverished and landless, he will have no trouble at all getting them to do just about anything for low wages.
The general case is that if all citizens have a certain level of material prosperity it will become increasingly impossible for the wealthy to hire others to do certain jobs.
A current example would be to consider that if Canada were to have universal employment with good-paying jobs, MacDonalds would find it extremely hard to find people willing to work at minimum-wage jobs flipping hamburgers ...
The Ontario Green NewsUnto This Last - John Ruskin
Wikipedia