Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

I am re-reading Rousseau's Social Contract theory and will post some thoughts on it soon.

But here's something i read recently and found it very insightful

It is important to recognize, moreover (a point thatOliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stressed repeatedly), thatpersonal wealth, no matter how great, is a part, and a constructive part, of aggregate social wealth. The rich do not burn their money, or put in boxes under their beds. If saved, the money is invested; if consumed, it provides incomes to the people who produce the goods that the rich buy; if given to charity or to politicians, it affects, not necessarily for the worse, the social, cultural, and political character of the society. The opportunity to amass wealth also channels the ambitions of aggressive people into relatively harmless channels, even if Samuel Johnson exaggerated when he said that people are rarely as innocently engaged as when they are making money.