Folia Theologica 11. (2000)
Eugene Csocsan de Váralja: The Just Income Distribution
THE JUST INCOME DISTRIBUTION 119 things of the external world could be used by man's reason and will for his own use, as made for him, because the less perfect things are for the more perfect.24 25 Because of this utility contained in the external goods, they share an analogous conform quality, by which we can bring these different goods (and services) under a common denominator. This utility is not an univocal , (that is identical) quality of the goods, but an analogous one, consisting in its applicability to a goal: uti est semper eius, quod est ad finem according to Saint Thomas Aquinas.26 Economic value therefore stems from the proportional analogy of the utility, which means a relation of “final” causality, where the goal, the “analogatum princeps”, is the man and his needs, and submitted to this concept are the useful goods (and services), which consitute the “inferiora” of the analogy, while the causal relationship required for this analogy is teleological.27 The utility however is the essential constituent of the economic value, because it also contains an existential constituent, which consist in the rarity of the item in question. This rarity means presence in at least five dimension: in space and time and in the social ambience, because a good might be available wholesale, but not at the retailers. Most of the goods in human use can be substituted, and the use or consumption itself could be postponed. Therefore even ancient scholastics knew, that economic value also depends on its estimation, by which man, the goal of economy decides on the use of the various goods. In this estimation we compare the various goods available in our possession and in the market and decide which is the more suitable to our goals in the given circumstances. In this evaluation the virtue of prudence has a key roll. “The prudence does not give the aims to the moral 24 Gen 126-3025 res exterior ...potest considerari ....quantum ad usum ipsius rei et sic habet homo naturale dominium exteriorum rerum, quia per rationem et voluntatem potest uti rebus exterioribus ad suam utilitatem, quasi propter se factis; semper enim imperfertiora sunt propter perfectiora, IIa IIaé qu. 66 a.. 1. 26 Ia IIae qu. 17 a. 3; Benutzung ist nach Thomas Verwendung einer Sache zu einem Zweck, see Alexander Horváth: Eigentumsrecht nach heiligen Thomas von Aquin, Graz 1929, page 61. 27 cf.: ZEMPLÉN, György, Metaphysica, pages 24-35 especially, pages 28-28, 33.
