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Why getting rich is not a bad idea
By Tseng Tan |
April 23, 2012, Monday
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THIS is in response to Fang Xinghai's article in Shanghai Daily on April 11, 2012, titled "Getting rich has withstood 2,000 years of philosophy."
In his book, "Status Anxiety," Alain de Botton wrote three stories about success.
In the first story, titled "The Rich are the Useful ones, Not the Poor," he mentioned the Abbot of Eynsham, named Aelfric (c 1015 AD), who wrote that wealth was created exclusively by the poor, those who tilled the land from dawn to dusk and the general view pervading then was that the working classes were the wealth-generating classes in society. It was the rich who over-indulge in pleasure-seeking activities and unnecessary expenditures. They were deemed parasites in society.
Useful creatures
Then in 1723, Bernard Mandeville, a London physician published a different, very startling shocking concept that was to change all that negative perception of the rich.
He wrote that the rich were in fact useful creatures, as spending provided employment for everyone at lower levels in society, and this enabled the weakest in society to survive. It is true that the rich are never satisfied in their desires but this pursuit of greater wealth is more useful to society since those with money would spend on luxuries that later benefit the providers (the workers) of such services.
Agreeing with Mandeville, Hume (1752) in his essay "Of Luxury," wrote: "In a nation where there is no demand for superfluities, men sink into indolence, lose all enjoyment of life, and are useless to the public, which cannot maintain or support its fleets and armies."
And 24 years later, Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" (1776) wrote that civilization progresses through the relentless efforts of greedy entrepreneurs and traders, resulting in the expansion of urban development and the support of arts and sciences. The big fish, by their spending of money, are in actual fact helping the smaller fishes to survive.
So getting rich is not a bad philosophy after all. However "riches leave a man always as much and sometimes more exposed than before to anxiety, to fear and to sorrow," wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776).
The author is a senior HR consultant in Singapore.
In his book, "Status Anxiety," Alain de Botton wrote three stories about success.
In the first story, titled "The Rich are the Useful ones, Not the Poor," he mentioned the Abbot of Eynsham, named Aelfric (c 1015 AD), who wrote that wealth was created exclusively by the poor, those who tilled the land from dawn to dusk and the general view pervading then was that the working classes were the wealth-generating classes in society. It was the rich who over-indulge in pleasure-seeking activities and unnecessary expenditures. They were deemed parasites in society.
Useful creatures
Then in 1723, Bernard Mandeville, a London physician published a different, very startling shocking concept that was to change all that negative perception of the rich.
He wrote that the rich were in fact useful creatures, as spending provided employment for everyone at lower levels in society, and this enabled the weakest in society to survive. It is true that the rich are never satisfied in their desires but this pursuit of greater wealth is more useful to society since those with money would spend on luxuries that later benefit the providers (the workers) of such services.
Agreeing with Mandeville, Hume (1752) in his essay "Of Luxury," wrote: "In a nation where there is no demand for superfluities, men sink into indolence, lose all enjoyment of life, and are useless to the public, which cannot maintain or support its fleets and armies."
And 24 years later, Adam Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" (1776) wrote that civilization progresses through the relentless efforts of greedy entrepreneurs and traders, resulting in the expansion of urban development and the support of arts and sciences. The big fish, by their spending of money, are in actual fact helping the smaller fishes to survive.
So getting rich is not a bad philosophy after all. However "riches leave a man always as much and sometimes more exposed than before to anxiety, to fear and to sorrow," wrote Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776).
The author is a senior HR consultant in Singapore.
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