ETHICS OF WEALTH 827
illustration taken from the pages of a modern economist (Ely) will serve to show the main economic argument against luxuries :
A and B have each an income in one year of one hundred thousand dol- lars beyond what they need to support themselves. A spends his hundred thousand dollars in giving a series of magnificent entertainments, and thought- less people say he is a man to be praised because he gives employment to labor. B spends his hundred thousand dollars in constructing a factory. His acquaintances may not know what he is doing with his income, and call him a bad citizen, who gives no employment, but "locks up his money," by which seems to be meant one who keeps from consumption commodities over which he has control. B has, however, consumed or directed the consump- tion of as large a quantity of economic good as A, and has something left to show for it. After he has given employment during the year to the men who have constructed his factory, he continues to give a number of men employ- ment and opportunity for consumption indefinitely, while A's consumption has ceased once for all. It may be said that all truly unproductive consump- tion is immoral. 1
Another example from a recent work 2 by Professor MacCunn, of University College, Liverpool, illustrates the same point :
Suppose we enter one of the great shipbuilding yards, and see there in the stocks an Atlantic liner. It is an object that implies cost. Hundreds of workmen come and work and go, day by day, consuming food and clothing and tools all the while, and spending their force on various products, which in their turn have only come into the yard at heavy cost of labor and mate- rial. By all this consumption the nation is so much poorer. It has expended much. But, then, there is a quid pro quo, a magnificent instrument of com- merce, by means of which a country may be, in comparatively brief space, not only recouped for all this outlay, but placed in a better position than ever for adding to its wealth. On the whole transaction there is gain. As a nation we are wealthier.
And now, suppose we take a few steps farther down the yard, and find there, fast approaching completion, the hull of a pleasure yacht. At first sight there might seem small difference between the cases. Men come and go, and earn their living here, just as in the other case ; and, just as in the other case, there is the using up of raw materials of diverse kinds. So far it might seem of small account whether we filled our yards with Atlantic liners or with pleasure yachts. But, of course, there is a difference the widest. In this case we have not an instrument of commerce; we have, instead, an instrument of pleasure and delight, destined to carry some happy company across summer seas, such as banish from the mind the very thought of commerce and all its accompaniments.
1 Introduction to Political Economy, p. 270. Ethics of Citizenship.
