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| Thomas Aquinas |
In Luke 3:7-18 John instructed a group of tax collectors and soldiers not to engage in extortion of money. Today, extortion is more commonly found in the price of goods and services. The question of what is a just price was proposed by early church theologians like Thomas Aquinas to combat usury, apply the Golden Rule and create fair standards in the marketplace. The argument is that an unjust price is a kind of fraud. For example, when retailers raise building material prices to profit from a disaster, that is extortion. When bankers charge poor people higher interest rates than wealthy people that is unjust. When manufacturers manipulate international politics so as to profit up to 1800 percent from wars that is legalized racketeering.* Charging a just price and treating everyone fairly is the goal of every sincere Christian.
* Butler, Smedley. Major General, USMC. War is a Racket. Speech. 1933
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