In every civilized country there have been some followers of the Buddhist doctrine that a placid serenity is the highest ideal of life; that it is the part of the wise man to root out of his nature as many wants and desires as he can; that real riches consist not in the abundance of goods but in the paucity of wants.At the other extreme are those who maintain that the growth of new wants and desires is always beneficial because it stimulates people to increased exertions.They seem to have made the mistake, as Herbert Spencer says, of supposing that life is for working, instead of working for life.(12*)The truth seems to be that as human nature is constituted, man rapidly degenerates unless he has some hard work to do, some difficulties to overcome; and that some strenuous exertion is necessary for physical and moral health.The fulness of life lies in the development and activity of as many and as high faculties as possible.There is intense pleasure in the ardent pursuit of any aim, whether it be success in business, the advancement of art and science, or the improvement of the condition of one's fellow-beings.The highest constructive work of all kinds must often alternate between periods of over-strain and periods of lassitude and stagnation; but for ordinary people, for those who have no strong ambitions, whether of a lower or a higher kind, a moderate income earned by moderate and fairly steady work offers the best opportunity for the growth of those habits of body, mind, and spirit in which alone there is true happiness.
There is some misuse of wealth in all ranks of society.And though, speaking generally, we may say that every increase in the wealth of the working classes adds to the fulness and nobility of human life because it is used chiefly in the satisfaction of real wants; yet even among the artisans in England, and perhaps still more in new countries, there are signs of the growth of that unwholesome desire for wealth as a means of display which has been the chief bane of the well-to-do classes in every civilized country.Laws against luxury have been futile; but it would be a gain if the moral sentiment of the community could induce people to avoid all sorts of display of individual wealth.There are indeed true and worthy pleasures to be got from wisely ordered magnificence: but they are at their best when free from any taint of personal vanity on the one side and envy on the other; as they are when they centre round public buildings, public parks, public collections of the fine arts, and public games and amusements.So long as wealth is applied to provide for every family the necessaries of life and culture, and an abundance of the higher forms of enjoyment for collective use, so long the pursuit of wealth is a noble aim; and the pleasures which it brings are likely to increase with the growth of those higher activities which it is used to promote.
When the necessaries of life are once provided, everyone should seek to increase the beauty of things in his possession rather than their number or their magnificence.An improvement in the artistic character of furniture and clothing trains the higher faculties of those who make them, and is a source of growing happiness to those who use them.But if instead of seeking for a higher standard of beauty, we spend our growing resources on increasing the complexity and intricacy of our domestic goods, we gain thereby no true benefit, no lasting happiness.The world would go much better if everyone would buy fewer and simpler things, and would take trouble in selecting them for their real beauty; being careful of course to get good value in return for his outlay, but preferring to buy a few things made well by highly paid labour rather than many made badly by low paid labour.
But we are exceeding the proper scope of the present Book;the discussion of the influence on general wellbeing which is exerted by the mode in which each individual spends his income is one of the more important of those applications of economic science to the art of living.
NOTES:
1.This term is a familiar one in German economics, and meets a need which is much felt in English economics.For "opportunity"and "environment," the only available substitutes for it, are sometimes rather misleading.By Konjunktur, says Wagner (Grundlegung, Ed.III, p.387), "we understand the sum total of the technical, economic, social and legal conditions; which, in a mode of national life (Volkswirtschaft) resting upon division of labour and private property,especially private property in land and other material means of production determine the demand for and supply of goods, and therefore their exchange value: this determination being as a rule, or at least in the main, independent of the will of the owner, of his activity and his remissness."2.Some further explanations may be given of this statement;though in fact they do little more than repeat in other words what has already been said.The significance of the condition in the text that he buys the second pound of his own free choice is shown by the consideration that if the price of 14s.had been offered to him on the condition that he took two pounds, he would then have to elect between taking one pound for 20s.or two pounds for 28s.: and then his taking two pounds would not have proved that he thought the second pound worth more than 8s.to him.But as it is, he takes a second pound paying 14s.
