Samuel Johnson, from “Life of Samuel Johnson” by James Boswell
“Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. One of these is the cry against the evil of luxury. Now the truth is, that luxury produces much good. Take the luxury of buildings in London. Does it not produce real advantage in the conveniency and elegance of accommodation, and this all from the exertion of industry? People will tell you, with a melancholy face, how many builders are in gaol. It is plain they are in gaol, not for building; for rents are not fallen. �A man gives half a guinea for a dish of green peas. How much gardening does this occasion? how many labourers must the competition to have such things early in the market keep in employment? You will hear it said, very gravely, ‘Why was not the half guinea, thus spent in luxury, given to the poor? To how many might it have afforded a good meal.’ Alas! has it not gone to the industrious poor, whom it is better to support than the idle poor? You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompence of their labour, than when you give money merely in charity.”
[Alas! It is possible that the poor had to sell these goods in order to live to some grasping middle-man who artificially depresses his cost and raises the expense to the man living in luxury: so that only a fraction of the half guinea went to the industrious poor, and the rest went to a human parasite, dignifying himself and his mean work with the grandiose title of �the service industry�. Or there is the case put by Proverbs 13:23 (ESV) The fallow ground of the poor would yield much food, but it is swept away through injustice.]