Section 2: Using wealth appropriately

It would seem proper to discuss “the appropriate use of wealth” next. For this also is a virtue concerned with wealth. But it does not, like generosity, extend to all _[20] the actions that are concerned with wealth, but only to those that involve great expenditure, surpassing typical generosity in scale. For, as the name itself suggests, it is a fitting expenditure involving largeness of scale. But the scale is relative, since the expense of equipping a trireme is not the same as that of heading a sacred embassy. It is what is fitting, then, in relation to the agent, to the circumstances, _[25] and to the object.

The person who in small or middling things spends according to the merits of the case is not said to “use wealth appropriately” (e.g. the person who can say “many a gift I gave the wanderer”), but only the person who does so in great things. For the person who uses wealth appropriately is generous, but the generous person is not necessarily someone who “uses wealth appropriately” [since only really big expenditures count as “using wealth” instead of just “spending money” or things like that.]

The deficiency of this state of character is called cheapness, _[30] the excess vulgarity, tastelessness, and the like, which do not go to excess in the amount spent on right objects, but by showy expenditure in the wrong circumstances and the wrong manner; we shall speak of these vices later.

The person who uses wealth appropriately is like an artist, since he can see what is fitting and spend large sums tastefully. For, _[35] as we said at the beginning, a disposition is determined by its activities and _[1122b1] by its objects. Now the expenses of the person who uses wealth appropriately are large and fitting. Such, therefore, are also his results, since thus there will be a great expenditure and one that is fitting to its result. Therefore, the result should be worthy of the expense, and the expense should be worthy of the result, or should even _[5] exceed it. And the person who uses wealth appropriately will spend such sums for the sake of what is noble, since this is common to the virtues. And further he will do so gladly and lavishly, since exact accounting is a cheap and stingy thing. And he will consider how the result can be made most beautiful and most becoming rather than for how much it can be produced and how it can be produced most cheaply.

It is necessary, then, that the person who uses wealth appropriately be also _[10] generous. For the generous person will also spend what he ought and as he ought; and it is in these matters that the greatness implied in the name of the person who uses wealth appropriately–his great wealth, as it were–is manifested, since generosity is concerned with these matters. And at an equal expense he will produce a more magnificent work. For a possession and a work have not the same excellence. The most valuable possession is that which is worth most; _[15] for example, gold. But the most valuable work is that which is great and beautiful (for the contemplation of such a work inspires admiration, and so does the appropriate use of wealth). And a work has an excellence–namely magnificence–which involves magnitude.

The appropriate use of wealth is an attribute of expenditures of the kind which we call “honorable,” for example, those connected with the gods–votive offerings, buildings, and sacrifices–and similarly _[20] with any form of religious worship, and all those that are proper objects of public-spirited ambition, as when people think they ought to equip a chorus or a trireme, or entertain the city, in a brilliant way. But in all cases, as has been said, we have regard to the agent as well and ask who he is and what means he has, since the expenditure should be worthy of his means, and _[25] suit not only the result but also the producer. Hence a poor person cannot use wealth appropriately, since he doesn’t have wealth and so can’t spend large sums fittingly. And he who tries is a fool, since he spends beyond what can be expected of him and what is proper, but it is right expenditure that is virtuous. But great expenditure is becoming to those who have suitable means to start with, acquired by their own efforts or _[30] from ancestors or connections, and to people of high birth or reputation, and so on, since all these things bring with them greatness and prestige.

Primarily, then, the person who uses wealth appropriately is of this sort, and the appropriate use of wealth is shown in expenditures of this sort, as has been said, since these are the greatest and most honorable. Of private occasions of expenditure the most suitable are _[35] those that take place once, for example, a wedding or anything of that kind, _[1123a1] or anything that interests the whole city or the people of position in it, and also the receiving of foreign guests and the sending of them on their way, and gifts and counter-gifts. For the person who uses wealth appropriately spends not on himself but on common good, and gifts bear some resemblance to votive offerings. _[5] A person who uses wealth appropriately will also furnish his house suitably to his wealth (for even a house is a sort of public ornament), and will spend by preference on those works that are lasting (for these are the most beautiful), and on every class of things he will spend what is becoming. For the same things are not suitable for gods and for men, nor in a temple and in a tomb.

And since _[10] each expenditure may be great of its kind, and what is most appropriate use of wealth simply speaking is great expenditure on a great good, but what is appropriate here is what is great in these circumstances, and greatness in the work differs from greatness in the expense (for the most beautiful ball or bottle is appropriate as a gift to a child, but the price of it is small and mean). _[15] Therefore it is characteristic of the person who uses wealth appropriately, whatever kind of result he is producing, to produce it magnificently (for such a result is not easily surpassed) and to make it worthy of the expenditure.

Such, then, is the person who uses wealth appropriately.

The person who goes to excess and is tasteless exceeds, as has been said, by spending beyond what is right. _[20] For on small objects of expenditure he spends much and displays a tasteless showiness; for example, he gives a club dinner on the scale of a wedding banquet, and when he provides the chorus for a comedy he brings them on to the stage in purple, as they do at Megara. And all such things he will do not for the sake of the noble but to show off his wealth, and because he thinks _[25] he is admired for these things, and where he ought to spend much he spends little and where little, much.

The cheap person, in contrast, will fall short in everything, and after spending the greatest sums will spoil the beauty of the result for a trifle, and whatever he is doing he will hesitate and consider how he may spend least, and lament even that, and _[30] think he is doing everything on a bigger scale than he ought.

The dispositions of tastelessness and cheapness, then, are vices. Yet they do not incur reproach because they are neither harmful to one’s neighbor nor very unseemly.