Aristotle Material Wealth Research Paper

I. The proper measure of material wealth is in money used to provide all of society with a comfortable means of living.
A. According to Aristotle, material wealth and money is proper to live comfortably, but money beyond what was necessary is unethical.
Aristotle distinguished between two kinds of wealth: household management and retail trade. Like all other things, Aristotle believed that money had a primary, proper use and a secondary, improper use. (Jowett) Household management consists of wealth which provided the necessities of life, and was the primary use of money. Money used to provide people with what they need is ethical. Retail trade, which is the secondary use for money, is acquiring money for the sake of acquiring money or to

Aristotle considered necessities to be things such as clothing, shoes, and food. (Jowett). Furthermore, Aristotle recognized that a person could exchange goods for money without that money being unethical per se. (Jowett) For example, if someone traded a good for money and then used that money to buy a necessity from someone else, the money would be ethical. However, if someone traded a good for money and then kept that money just to have more money, the money would be unethical.

B. Condemning wealth beyond what is necessary fails to account for supply and demand.
In response to Aristotle’s position, it could be argued that surplus materials may provide wealth beyond what is necessary without being unethical. For example, take a year that there is an abundant crop. If one year the weather produces more corn, for example, than a farmer had expected and there are many farmers of corn, there will be a surplus of corn. If that corn is sold at a fair price, or even below a fair price, the farmer will have more wealth than is necessary for his basic necessities but he has not sold the corn with intent to acquire extra