The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

The new interim pastor at our church, while a very nice guy, is pretty far left from all indications. I was not there this Sunday, so I got this story from my oldest daughter who I've tried to install good economic thinking, and she immediately recognized the fallacy and related it to me in exasperated terms.

The subject of the sermon (or part of it, as other parts hit on other leftist shibboleths) was income equality with Matthew 20 as the teaching tool. For those unfamiliar:

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

My response after the ritual head-shaking, was a point my 17-year old daughter managed to grasp on her own. Nothing in the parable above talks about what happens on the next day, so let me imagine it for you. On the subsequent day, he went at 9 O'Clock and couldn't find anyone willing to work for him for 1 denarius. At noon and 3:00, likewise no one would come. Finally at 5:00 a large group agreed to come. After working for an hour they demanded their wage. Meanwhile almost no grapes had been picked. Similar things happened on subsequent days and soon the owner could no longer afford to pay any workers as his unpicked grapes were rotting on the vines. Most of his crop was ruined, his vineyards were seized by his creditors and he had to beg in the street for alms, and died in poverty. All the workers also had to become beggers from the lack of employment opportunities after the big vineyard shut down.