Justice In John Ruskin's Unto This Last

A major theme in John Ruskin’s Unto This Last essays is the common thread of justice. These essays were written in the 1860s and Ruskin was highly criticized for his work. In fact, when Ruskin died, he was considered crazy. It is so interesting that colleges are still analyzing Ruskin’s essays even though he was ridiculed immensely for them. There are many different aspects of justice that Ruskin addresses in his essays, however; the three main ones that this paper will dissect are the justice in owner and worker relations, the impact of business practices on the community, and the issue of wages. The first one that will be talked about is the owner and worker relations. In the 1860s, labor was characterized by “low morale that is evident …show more content…
All of them know except for the merchant. The merchants only duty is to provide for the nation no matter the cost. In the majority of businesses, the owners focus on profits instead of employees. The head people do not care about who they get rid of, as long as they save money. This is not what Ruskin recommends. In fact, this is what Ruskin calls mercantile economy. Mercantile economy is, “the accumulation, in the hands of individuals, of legal or moral claim upon, or power over, the labour of others.” According to this model, every business is in the game only to advance their own profit. That does not seem like a just way to rule the business. Ruskin has a better idea. It is called Political economy. Political economy is, “the production, preservation, and distribution, at the fittest time and place, of useful or pleasurable things.” Political economy’s major concern is the wellbeing of the community or State. One of Ruskin’s main points is that the owner and employee should have a paternal relationship. He says: “As soldiers must love their officers to fight bravely, workers need a personal relation with their employer in order to do their best.” If an employee loves his employer, that employee is going to want to work ten times harder to please the employer. They say love is a greater …show more content…
The laborers worked in giant factories for very long hours and were paid very little. Ruskin would not think that this was a good idea. Ruskin also would not find it to be a very just system of rule in the company. Of course, the employees would abide by the rules of the company because of the Power of Money. The Power of Money is based on a person’s lack of money. If one person has more money than another person, they have power over them. This caused unnatural bidding for jobs. An employer would be looking to hire one carpenter. Then the employer would force the two laborers to compete to get the position with lower bids each time. This would go on until one of the laborers said that they would do the work for half of the price. Then the employer would pocket the rest. This is a very unjust model that went on for a very long time. With Ruskin’s model, everyone is paid justly and fairly. The result of that is the business has more money flowing in it and everyone prospers. So, really, one employer paying a fair wage to his employees is helping the whole community grow wealthier. Many businesses followed this “science of getting rich.” This science is basically the way to get the maximum profit. The main way to achieve this is to rule all the ethical or moral questions out. They are no longer necessary for the employer to achieve the goal of being rich. These types of questions will only make the employer question whether or