The Wisdom of Frugality by Westacott Emrys;

Author:Westacott, Emrys;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2016-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

The Root of evil, Avarice,

That damn’d ill-natur’d baneful Vice,

Was Slave to Prodigality,

That Noble Sin; whilst Luxury

Employ’d a Million of the Poor,

And odious Pride a Million more . . .

. . . Thus Vice nursed Ingenuity,

Which join’d with time; and Industry

Had carry’d Life’s Conveniencies,

It’s real Pleasures, Comforts, Ease,

To such a Height, the very Poor

Lived better than the Rich before.28

Adam Smith more or less endorsed this idea in arguing that when individuals single-mindedly pursue “the gratification of their own vain and insatiable desires,” they unintentionally, as if “led by an invisible hand,” benefit society as a whole.29 In making this argument, he was reflecting and assisting a broad shift in moral perspective, shared by his friend David Hume, according to which traits should be classified as virtues and vices not by reference to some idealized personality type or lifestyle, but according to their social utility.30 Thus Hume, in a similar fashion, criticizes “the men of severe morals [who] blame even the most innocent luxury,” and offers an early defense of consumerism:

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