Yacob's argument that justice flows from reason itself means inflation-driven inequality becomes not just unfair but fundamentally irrational and destabilizing.
Unlike thinkers who ground justice in divine command or tradition, Zera Yacob derived justice from reason itself. Just systems are those that cohere with how rational beings should treat one another. Inflation reveals the irrationality of systems that permit some groups to benefit while others suffer erosion of wealth. When inflation is driven by policies favoring creditors over debtors, asset-holders over wage-earners, or financial sectors over producers, rational scrutiny exposes systemic injustice. Yacob's framework rejects the notion that inflation is a neutral force before which all are equally helpless. Rather, it is often a symptom of choices: monetary policy decisions, wage suppression, productive underinvestment. Economic justice, from this view, is not charity but rational self-interest—societies that allow inflation to concentrate wealth undermine the stability required for all to flourish. Yacob's Ethiopian wisdom emphasizes that sustainable economies require deliberate commitment to fair distribution and real wage protection. Economic justice is not radical idealism but the foundation of reasonable governance.
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