The second factor of "objective equivalence" is even more questionable than the first. To be _completely_ just, says Father Antoine, wages must be not merely adequate to a decent livelihood, but equivalent to the "economic value of the labour" ("la valeur économique du travail"). This "economic value" is determined objectively by the cost of production, the utility of the product, and the movement of supply and demand; subjectively, by the judgment of employers and employés. In case of conflict between these two measures of value, and in case of uncertainty concerning the objective measure, the decision of the subjective determinant must always prevail. These statements are hopelessly ambiguous and confusing. If the objective measure of "economic value" is to be understood in a purely positive way, it merely means the wages that actually obtain in a competitive market. In the purely positive or economic sense, the utility of labour is measured by what it will command in the market, the movement of supply and demand is likewise reflected in market wages, and the determining effect of cost of production is also seen in the share that the market awards to labour after the other factors of production have taken their portions of the product. In other words, the "economic value" of labour is simply its market value. This, however, is not Father Antoine's meaning; for he has already declared that the "economic value" of labour is never less than the equivalent of a decent livelihood, whereas we know that the market value often falls below that level. In his mind, therefore, "economic value" has an ethical signification. It indicates at least the requisites of decent living, and it embraces more than this in some cases. When? and how much more? Let us suppose a business so prosperous that it returns liberal profits to the employer and the prevailing rate of interest on the capital, and yet shows a surplus sufficient to give all the labourers ten dollars a day. Is "cost of production" to be interpreted here as allowing only the normal rate of profits and interest to the business man and the capitalist, leaving the residue to labour? Or is it to be understood as requiring that the surplus be divided among the three agents of production? In other words, is the "economic value" of labour in such cases to be determined by some ethical principle which tells beforehand how much the other agents than labour ought to receive? If so, what is this principle or formula? None of these questions is satisfactorily answered in Father Antoine's pages. They are all to be solved by having recourse to the subjective determinant of "economic value"; namely, the judgment of employers and employés. Thus his proximate factor of justice in wages, his formula of complete as against minimum just wages, turns out to be something entirely subjective, and more or less arbitrary. It is in no sense a measure of the equivalence between work and pay.