Benjamin Franklin on Wealth

“Anti-luxury politics are often a hit with the public. But Ben Franklin argued that wealth accumulation is a positive, and that government should not interfere. … In part, Franklin believed that there was little cause for concern because ‘upon the whole the Quantity of Industry and Prudence among Mankind exceeds the Quantity of Idleness and Folly.’ Legal intervention against wealth accumulation, Franklin further proclaimed, destroys incentives: ‘Is not the Hope of one day being able to purchase and enjoy Luxuries a great Spur to Labour and Industry? May not Luxury therefore produce more than it consumes, if without such a Spur People would be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent?'”