Markets and Wages (2) Fraud Forbidden

The first restriction on free markets is that fraud and deception are forbidden. They are considered to be theft, even if the transaction appeared to be free.

Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly (Deut 25:13-16).

This instruction was given in a context where coins were not available for trade. Payments for purchases and sales were made by weighing out gold or silver. A clever way to defraud people was to use scales that weighed light when making payments and a different set of scales that weighed heavy when getting paid.

This type of fraud was an example of what economists call asymmetric information. The person who owned the scales had information that the other did not have. They assumed that they were getting full weight, whereas the person with the scales knew that they were not getting full weight. Even if the exchange occurred freely at an agreed price, the transaction was theft, because the person with the scales was taking something that belong to the other, without getting their permission. Dishonest buying and selling is theft.

The instruction applies to everyone selling goods or services. They must represent the stuff that they are selling accurately. Selling flawed goods as if they are good quality is wrong, because “God detests anyone who deals dishonestly”. This is not a totally free market, where people can take whatever price they can get, even if it is greater than they think the goods are worth. Nor are they entitled to pay the lowest price possible, especially if they think the goods are worth more. Two comments are common in business:

• Let the buyer beware.
• What the market will bear.

They have no place amongst God’s people.

The economic system that system that God gave Moses allows and supports free markets, but this is not freedom without constraint. Trade is free, but it must be honest. Dishonest trade if morally wrong, because it is theft.

Tomato Justice (2) - Employers

The second important issue is to understand the responsibilities of employers to their employees. Many Christians like to quote the prophet Malachi’s condemnation of employers who defraud their labourers.

So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty (Mal 3:5).

Malachi puts those who defraud their labourers in the same basket as liars and adulterers. These latter are crimes specified in the Ten Commandments, so defrauding wage earners falls into the same category. Defrauding a labourer is theft, because it deprives of something of something that legally belongs to him.
Malachi does not actually specify what these employees were doing. However, the prophets did not decide for themselves what is right or wrong. The prophetic role was to challenge those who break God’s laws, so we can expect their crimes to be clearly defined in the Old Testament laws. This is the case.

There are several ways that an employee can be defrauded.

1. The first is just like every other type of fraud. The person promise to do something and when he has received the benefit refuses to pay for what he has received.
   

   Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. ( Lev 19:13).
   

   When the work is complete a bad employer might refuse to pay wages that he has agreed to pay. This a breach of contract is a form of theft.
2. An employer can defraud a worker by refusing to pay wages promptly. A worker in difficult circumstance should be paid daily, because he might go hungry if he has to wait to the end of the week or the end of the month.
   

   Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight( Lev 19:13).
   

   Late payment of wages can cause real adversity in some situations.
3. An employer can defraud their employee when they negotiate the wages for the work. If the prospective employees are desperate for work, the employer must not take advantage of their vulnerability when negotiating their wages.
   

   You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in your land within your gates. (Deut 24:14)

   The word “oppress” (âshaq) means “press upon, oppress, violate, defraud, get deceitfully, extort”. An employer who pays someone who is poor and needy less than someone who is not has defrauded their employee. Paying a low rate of pay is not a breach of this law. To show that his law has been broken, prophet would have to show that the employer was paying less to the poor and needy than would be paid to other people.