Wealth

Wealth corrupts the soul and the city; the love of money is the root of oligarchic decay.

Natural wealth-getting serves the household; money-making for its own sake is limitless and contrary to nature.

Wealth is a legitimate but subordinate good; private property is justified by natural law yet bound by the claims of justice and charity.

Labor creates property; the invention of money makes unlimited accumulation rational, and government exists to protect what labor has earned.

Commerce softens manners and binds nations in mutual dependence; the spirit of trade naturally promotes peace and moderation.

Private property is the origin of inequality; wealth corrupts natural goodness and civil society was invented to protect the rich.

The division of labor, not gold or land, is the true source of national wealth; self-interest channeled through markets serves the public good.

Civil society generates wealth and poverty as structural twins; the state must mediate between economic freedom and social disintegration.

Production follows natural laws, but distribution is a matter of human choice; economic arrangements should maximize liberty and general welfare.

Capital is not a thing but a social relation; wealth accumulates through the exploitation of labor, and its history is written in blood.