fair price

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A fair price (Latin iustum pretium ) is a value determined according to ethical-normative criteria for the exchange of goods . The question of price fairness is the subject of business ethics and its origins can be traced back to Aristotle . In order to assess whether a fair price exists, it must be clarified which standard of fairness is based on a judgment about the price, how the price was determined and whether this price determination corresponds to the chosen standard for fairness .

If one proceeds from the principle of exchange justice (iustitia commutativa), the question of equivalence stands in the foreground. Prices are fair when performance and consideration correspond. The buyer must have all the factual information about the goods purchased and there must be no distortions due to the exploitation of special constellations, for example excessive water prices in the event of drought. Exchange justice is based on the performance principle . This is preceded by the principle of distributive justice (iustitia distributiva), which is based on needs . According to this, prices are unfair if they do not guarantee a part of society at least an adequate basic supply.

From a legal point of view, prices that are immoral are prohibited. This includes, in particular, usury , i.e. a disproportion between performance and consideration while exploiting an emergency.

Problems of price assessment

A price is formed when goods are to be exchanged. The price can be set by someone (politically) ( administered price ) or it is determined on the market as a market price through supply and demand . When assessing a price - regardless of whether it is a political price or a market price - a distinction is made between use value and exchange value . The so-called value paradox exists between these two subjective standards . A good with a high use value, such as water or a picture painted by a relative, can have a very low exchange value if it is highly available. On the other hand, goods with a low use value, for example luxury goods such as diamonds, can have a very high exchange value. From a social point of view, goods that have a very high use value and a very high exchange value are problematic. This is the case, for example, when food or housing is so expensive that poor sections of the population cannot afford them.

In order to avoid the problem of price determination with subjective standards, it was suggested in the history of price theory to use the labor value of a good as the objective price ( labor value theory in Smith , Ricardo and Marx ). If the same labor values ​​are used as a basis in the entire economy , then exchange justice can be achieved. But the determination of an objective price also has problems for its part. On the one hand, it is assumed that the goods produced at a certain labor value can also be sold, i.e. that there is a demand for the objective value at all. On the other hand, an objective value presupposes that the wages of all work are measured in the same way, for example according to working hours. However, due to different personal abilities, the work performance per unit of time is not the same for everyone. In addition, the production conditions play an important role. For example, the production of a certain amount of grain on a barren soil in the mountains or in a fertile river plain leads to different amounts of time and effort. Since the product is homogeneous , a buyer will not be willing to reward the higher workload with a higher price.

A new approach in price theory resulted from a shift in the question at the end of the 19th century. The topic was no longer the “right” price of a good, but rather the question at which price supply and demand match. This led to the idea that a buyer is buying exactly the product that brings him the greatest additional benefit , the marginal utility ( Carl Menger , Walras , Jevons ). The marginal utility theory follows the hypothesis that in the case of scarce goods, due to the high prices, providers produce more as long as there is demand. As a result, the scarcity gradually decreases and the prices gradually decrease until a price is established in the market at which supply and demand are equally high and reach a market equilibrium . Such an equilibrium model requires strict requirements: perfect competition , market transparency and a lack of transaction costs . Newer models of industrial economics differentiate between situations of the imperfect market ( monopoly , oligopoly, etc.), but still ask about the way prices are formed in the market and use the concept of marginal utility. Since these are pure explanatory models for prices, the question of the fairness of prices cannot be assessed with these concepts. Market power , social inequality or price discrimination are presented in terms of their effects, but not rated in a normative manner.

history

The distinction between exchange and distribution justice goes back to Aristotle . For him, the basis of exchange is the need. In exchange there is initially justice when performance and consideration correspond. However, care must be taken to ensure that social conditions are taken into account when assessing performance: “Like the master builder to the shoemaker, shoes relate to the house or to food to the same extent; if that were not possible, there would be neither exchange nor community ”Depending on the social position, performance can be assessed differently. The iustitia distributiva (distributive justice) must ensure an order in which one can act according to the iustitia commutativa (exchange justice).

In his commentary on Aristotle, Albertus Magnus emphasized that fair pricing includes taking into account the work involved and the material used. Even Thomas Aquinas is based on Aristotle. He determines the value of a good as a market price: “But the value of things that come into circulation for the benefit of people is measured according to the price paid.” However, he restricts: “Sell more expensively or buy cheaper than a thing is worth , is therefore in itself unjust and impermissible. ”In particular, the exploitation of an emergency is prohibited because the excessive price is not due to a performance of the seller. On the other hand, in contrast to Aristotle, who rejected this as a chrematistic , Thomas considers moderate profits from trading permissible. The price can also be a compensation for the loss of benefit to the seller.

While with Aristotle and Thomas it was still important that the price should not lead to a change in the social order, with Thomas Cajetan there is the view that a price is also justified if it matters more to the seller than to meet his needs is necessary because it enables an ascent to a higher level. Even Gabriel Biel saw trade positive. For him, the fair price was determined by the need for a good, its rarity and the cost of its production. He also awarded the merchant a wage as a premium. A stronger emphasis on the market and an extensive rejection of state-influenced prices can be found in Spanish scholasticism, for example with Luis de Molina , who spoke of a “natural price” in this context. In contrast to this, Martin Luther advocated an “objective” price, which is based on work, costs, effort and risk. However, he saw the problem of finding an appropriate value for this: “It is not possible to determine so precisely how much you have earned with such effort and work. It is enough that you strive with a clear conscience to find the right measure, although it is a peculiarity of trade that it is impossible to manage. "

Thomas Hobbes broke with the tradition of emphasizing subjective as well as objective criteria in the price . His social model is based on the concept of the contract, which is also decisive for pricing: "The value of all objects in a contract is measured according to the demands of the contracting parties, and therefore the fair value is what they are willing to pay" Input more. The price is determined solely subjectively. This also applies to human performance: “The validity or worth of a person, like that of all other things, is his price. That is, it depends on how much one would pay to use one's power, and is therefore not absolute, but dependent on the needs and assessment of another. […] Because if someone, as most people do, attach the highest value to himself, his true worth is no higher than he is valued by others. “For Hobbes, work is a good like any other, the price of which is increased determined on the market, whereby the price depends on the appreciation (use value) of the demand.

Adam Smith is known for his advocacy of the market, whose “ invisible hand ” leads to greater efficiency and thus greater prosperity than the state control of the mercantilism he criticizes . To investigate what exchange value a commodity should have, Smith looked at the supply side. According to this, the price must enable both an income for work as the original added value, but also the capital that has been invested in the means of production, and ultimately also for the landowner as rent. “[It] is the value of a commodity for its owner who does not use or consume it himself but wants to exchange it for others, equal to the amount of work that enables him to buy it or to dispose of it. Work is therefore the true or actual measure of the exchange value of all goods. "

For Immanuel Kant , one can derive the demand for a fair price from his considerations on the categorical imperative , where he states that everything has either a price or a dignity in relation to the “realm of purposes” . “What has a price, something else, as an equivalent, can also be put in its place; What, on the other hand, is above all price and therefore does not provide an equivalent, has a dignity. ”(GMS BA 77). Through the claim to his dignity, man, who is never to be treated only as a means but always as an end, also has the right to experience reciprocity in justice. This also applies in particular to wages as the price of labor.

In Karl Marx's theory of labor value, work has a double character: “All work is, on the one hand, the expenditure of human labor in the physiological sense, and in this property of equal human or abstract human labor, it forms the value of goods. On the other hand, all work is the expenditure of human labor in a special purpose-determined form, and in this property of concrete useful work it produces use values. ”Concrete work on a product creates useful use value. In the abstract, however, work enters into the exchange value of a product as labor time, which determines the price of a commodity on the market. “The daily or weekly value of labor is quite different from the daily or weekly exercise of this force, just as the feed that a horse needs is entirely different from the time it can carry the rider. The labor quantity, where the value of the labor power of the worker is limited, in no way forms a limit for the labor quantity that his labor power can perform. ”In addition to the fundamental idea of ​​labor value, Marx took over from David Ricardo the hint that capital should invest according to the Rate of profit of the individual industries and thus the profit opportunity contributes to the control of the capital employed. However, the use of capital determines the respective production prices . Through the production relations of capitalism, the value of labor is detached from the value of the commodity and becomes a commodity itself. This leads to alienation , rural exodus and impoverishment. At the latest with Marx, the question of the fair price becomes a question of social justice , even if Marx and Engels themselves did not see the solution of the distribution problems in historical materialism as a question of justice, but in overcoming capitalism : “The materialistic view of history starts from the proposition that production, and next to production, the exchange of its products, is the basis of all social order; that in every historically occurring society the distribution of products, and with it the social division into classes or estates, depends on what and how produced and how what is produced is exchanged. According to this, the ultimate causes of all social changes and political upheavals are to be sought not in people's heads, in their increasing insight into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the mode of production and exchange; they are not to be sought in philosophy, but in the economy of the epoch in question. ”Therefore, Marx recommended to the workers:“ Instead of the conservative motto: 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!', they should write the revolutionary slogan on their banner : 'Down with the wage system!' "

For the economist Gustav v. Schmoller , who can be attributed to the Kathedersozialisten , was concerned with allowing ethical values ​​to come into play in economic theory. In his case, alongside exchange justice, distributive justice also occurs again in the form of social institutions: “Today, above all, we demand just economic institutions in addition to just exchange, that is, we demand that the complexes of rules of custom and law, which groups together of working and living together in certain directions, staying in harmony in their results with those ideals which, based on our moral and religious ideas, are ruling or coming to power today. ”In this sense, Schmoller advocates state intervention in the event of market failure out. The official and the free pricing each have their advantages and disadvantages and must therefore correct each other.

Even Oswald von Nell-Breuning an important representative of the Catholic social ethics held a dualism of state and formed the market price to be appropriate. In economic policy, the first step is to create a reasonable order that also takes ethical principles into account: "The object of social structural policy is therefore first of all the target choice: which social structure leads in the current misunderstanding, insofar as this is to be accepted as a given, for the well-being of the members of the social body? Then there is the choice of means, among which in the economic area in the first place is the setting of those data that lead to that structure of wages and prices and thus to that income and, in a wider perspective, asset stratification that is suitable for the sub-structure social structure recognized as correct. ”The objective function of the economy is an optimal satisfaction of needs and the guarantee of maintenance. If there is a properly designed order, an appropriate price will also arise in the market using the principle of equivalence (fairness of exchange). "The determinants of the value are at the same time the determinants of the 'right' price, and the 'right' price in the economic sense is the 'just' price in the sense of morality" State intervention can be required when abusive conditions, especially market power, result Monopolies and cartels. In principle, however, the priority of the economy and the principle of subsidiarity apply .

The sociologist Niklas Luhmann concisely formulates his historical concept of the matter as follows:

“From a sociological point of view, the semantics of the 'fair price' related to moral guidelines, thus to the social system as a whole, that is to say to general conditions of human coexistence and in particular to stratification. It was directed against the purely individual pursuit of profit by making use of all available opportunities. The semantics of 'just price' must therefore be read against the background of the difference between the common good (which gives every individual his right) and selfishness. "

Today's meaning

The concept of the fair price is widely viewed as impractical in modern market economy-oriented economics - u. a. because there is no objective way of determining a “fair” price. After the introduction of social legislation that guarantees a subsistence level, the majority of the western industrialized countries accepted the market price principle, which leaves price formation to supply and demand . In the negotiation process between employees and employers, fair wages are established through their associations without the participation of the state. The task of regulatory policy is to design the framework, for example to prevent price distortions caused by competition policy . Interventionist intervention by the state or general state price regulations are predominantly rejected with the argument of inefficiency. It is controversial to what extent the state should intervene in the economic system with social policy and whether a supply policy or a demand policy better serves economic development. If the market price deviates too much from the "felt" fair price, politicians still intervene in price formation today through market regulation - for example through special taxes (tobacco tax, mineral oil tax), state allowances, tax deductibility, reduced value added tax , legal regulations such as Prohibitions or commandments . In the event of rising crude oil prices , the German government reacted by releasing state stocks. The question of the fair price is still reflected in the discussion about minimum wages , which should at least ensure a decent living with full working hours, or about the salaries of managers .

Fairtrade

In foreign trade , under the heading of fair trade, a number of organizations are trying to sell goods from developing countries at a fair (i.e. just) price.

Delimitation: fair value

A fair value is determined as part of the valuation of assets according to IFRS . However, this is not a fair price in the sense of this article, but an attempt to find a valuation as close as possible to the market price .

See also

literature

  • Christian Hecker: fair wages and prices. Historical reviews and current perspectives with special consideration of Christian social teachings . Metropolis, Marburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89518-677-6 , ( Ethik und Ökonomie 6), (At the same time: Kassel, Univ., Diss., 2007: In what form is it possible to apply justice considerations to economic exchange processes? ) .
  • Werner Lachmann: Economics . Part 2: Applications . 2nd complete, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-540-20219-6 .
  • Susanne Wied-Nebbeling: Price Theory and Industrial Economics . 5th revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-93821-7 , ( Springer textbook ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NE V.8, 1133
  2. ↑ NE V. 8, 1133 a
  3. ^ Christian Hecker: Wage and Price Justice, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 44
  4. ↑ a b S.Th. II, II, q77, a1 right
  5. ^ Christian Hecker: Wage and Price Justice, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 56
  6. ^ Christian Hecker: Pay and Price Justice, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 57
  7. ↑ Martin Luther: Christ und Gesellschaft, Berlin 1982, 244, quoted from Christian Hecker: Lohn- und Preiserechtigkeit, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 62
  8. ↑ a b Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan or material, form and violence of a church and bourgeois state, Suhrkamp, ​​7th edition Frankfurt 1996, 115
  9. ↑ Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations. , dtv, 5th edition Munich 1990, 28.
  10. ↑ Christofer Frey: Introduction, in: Christofer Frey, Jürgen Hädrich, Lars Klimert (Ed.): Justice - Illusion or Challenge ?, LIT, Berlin 2006, 7-19, here 17
  11. ^ Christian Hecker: Wage and Price Justice, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 132
  12. ↑ Das Kapital , MEW 23, p. 61
  13. ^ Wages, prices, profit , MEW 16, 133
  14. ↑ Friedrich Engels: Mr. Eugen Dührings Umwälzung der Wissenschaft, MEW Vol. 20, pp. 248–249
  15. ^ Wages, prices, profit, MEW 16, 152
  16. ^ Gustav Schmoller: Die Gerechtigkeit in der Volkswirtschaft, in: Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Economics, 5, 1881, 19–54, here 29–30, quoted from: Christian Hecker: Lohn- und Preiserechtigkeit, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 69
  17. ↑ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: Berufsständischeordnung und Monopolismus, in: ORDO, 3, 1950, 211–237, here 232, quoted from: Christian Hecker: Lohn- und Preisrechte, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 109–110
  18. ↑ Oswald von Nell-Breuning: On the concept of value, in: Max Meinertz, Adolf Donders (Ed.): From Ethik und Leben, Münster 1931, 128-136, here 133, quoted from: Christian Hecker: Lohn- und Preiserechtigkeit, Metropolis, Marburg 2008, 94
  19. ^ Niklas Luhmann: The economy of society. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main 1st edition 1988. ISBN 3-518-57883-9 . P. 23f.