Good stuff in Plato's Republic. I look forward to coming back and reading more Plato later on, but part of the plan is to read lots of different stuff. Before we more on though here are a couple of thoughts.
"You mean when money is not wanted but allowed to lie?...That is to say, justice is useful when money is useless?" Socrates dives in and talks about when we use "Justice," and it is a good point that it isn't in the active use of items. If you want something to happen with your stuff you find the appropriate artist (farmer for the plow, a smith for anvil, a soldier for the sword), but when they are being kept idle then you need a just man that can be trusted.
That leads into another distinction that is drawn. The difference between a just man and an unjust man is the direction of their intent. A just man is concerned about others, where the unjust man twists others' intent to serve his concerns.
The last, and perhaps most interesting element that I noticed in Book 2 of the Republic was a section on censorship for youth. Socrates is portrayed as being passionate about how kids are exposed to poets. He has two big qualms; I'll elaborate with quotes below.
"Let this then be on of our rules and priciples concerning the gods, to which our poest and reciters will be expected to conform--that God is not the author of all things, but of good only."
"Then it is impossible that God should ever be willing to change; being, as is supposed, the fairest and best that is conceivable, every God remains absolutely and for ever in his own form."
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