Do you believe that where wealth accumulates Men Decay?

India’s saints and sages, in common with philosophers, regarded wealth as the source of countless evils. While it is true that abysmal poverty also is the cause of many malpractices and crimes, including thefts, robberies, dacoities and assaults of various descriptions, vast accumulation of wealth is no less a cause of deterioration of the human character.

The number of people, especially young men, who have become moral lepers and who have developed wasteful and ruinous habits, is indeed legion.

Money and other resources are admittedly necessary for a comfortable life, for good education, the encouragement of art and development of a sound culture. But, as in other areas, excess and accumulation of wealth lead to mental, moral and cultural decay often beyond redemption.

Human character can create wealth, but wealth cannot create character; rather, it gradually ruins it and creates conditions in which the basic virtues of existence decay or are destroyed. Human sympathy, compassion for the poor, the weak and the down trodden, the elementary qualities of respect and reverence for elders, consideration for others and at times even the dictates of courtesy, are forgotten when the obsession with wealth becomes a predominant trait of one’s character.

Countless instances are known of wealthy people becoming proud, arrogant, cruel and heartless. Mahatma Gandhi taught that wealth should be regarded as a public trust, to be utilised for the public good and the welfare of one’s fellowmen. But how many people follow the Mahatma’s teachings?

Again, the accumulation of wealth is itself an indication of injustice, inequality and unfair distribution of a nation’s resources. Where there is economic justice and everyone has fair opportunities to earn enough for his and his family’s requirements, accumulation of wealth will be rare, because it will be evenly distributed. Unfortunately, this is not so in modern capitalist society.

No wonder, the human character is decaying and there is more of injustice and inequity than ever before. It is also an irony of modern civilisation that wherever there is concentration of wealth, and even where more and more wealth is produced because of better human talent and industry, the poor have remained poor (many have even become poorer); wherever some progress has been made, it is totally disproportionate to the total wealth produced. Most of the additional wealth goes to the already rich and only a part of it is spread thinly over the general masses.

Thus, the accumulation process gets more intensified. The pockets of the rich go on bulging, while the clothes of the poor and their dwellings continually become slimmer and yet more pitiable.

Moreover, it is common knowledge that the possession of a large amount of wealth not only encourages sloth, laziness and complacency, but also acts as a disincentive to effort and labour of any kind. Where money flows like water, there are bound to be countless social evils, such as a permissive society, a distinct fall in the moral standards, rapid development of bad habits, greed and love of money and filthy lucre. It has been found that good character, honesty, truth and sincerity tend to disappear where there is accumulation of wealth.

It is need, austerity and simplicity that provide the right incentives; but where there is gold galore, it acts in the contrary direction. Decay of the physique and of morals follows inevitably.

Nor is it a secret that wealth leads to corruption and graft; the misuse of wealth becomes common where there is plenty of it. People are openly bribed because the feeling spreads that money can buy anything, even human beings, their labour and their votes.

It is seldom that excess leads to greater intelligence; the world’s most intelligent and sagacious people belonged to poor families or, at any rate, families which were having only moderate or low incomes. It is need and urgency that work as impelling forces, and among the very wealthy people all the needs are met; so the conditions that facilitate the development of initiative, drive and character are lacking.

Excessive wealth does not necessarily promote culture and intelligence; in fact, the ostentatious, luxurious living that wealth promotes causes a notable deterioration of character and one’s conception of values. Rarely do highly intelligent people, famous writers and artists belong to rich families.

Since wealth has the habit of itself diminishing fast, most of those who possess it go to any extent, even the adoption of unethical practices and dishonesty, to acquire more wealth. This leads to further decay and deterioration of character.

Rabindranath Tagore, India’s Poet Laureate, warned: “Greed of wealth and power can never have a limit, and compromise of self control can never attain the final spirit of reconciliation. They must go on breeding jealousy and suspicion to the end, the end which only comes through some sudden catastrophe or a spiritual rebirth. There is mischief in money.”

Of course, it is not true that wherever there is accumulation of wealth, there is automatically, or ipso facto, total lack of virtue. But there is undoubtedly a general trend to that effect, and it is the generality rather than the exception that counts most.

There is also no doubt that possession of large quantities of wealth leads to reactionary attitudes and creates a vested interest in the status quo. Thus, it breeds conservatism and an opposition to any social and economic reform that might tend to disturb the existing order, the status quo, which has proved so beneficial to the affluent classes.

Accumulation of wealth is also an obstacle to the working of democracy, because of the gross and unwarranted inequality it promotes. Democracy postulates equality, both of resources, opportunities and, as far as is practicable, of economic possessions.

Accumulation inevitably leads to discrimination, which in turn prompts the rulers to enforce measures that can hardly be described as just and fair to every one. It was this apprehension that prompted India’s Constitution makers to specifically mention in Part IV—Directive Principles of State Policy—that “the State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting, as effectively as it may, a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life”.

Such justice can be ensured only when there is a fairer distribution of economic and other resources. The founding fathers of the Constitution even went further and laid down that the State shall minimise the inequalities of income and endeavor to eliminate them.

Again, Article 39 states that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community should be so distributed as best to sub serve the common good…and further that the operation of the economic system should not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment. These provisions were inserted in the Constitution after considerable thought.

The basic aim, of course, was to avoid accumulation or concentration of wealth; otherwise, all the talk of socialism and a socialistic pattern of society would begin to sound hollow and totally meaningless. Surely, there cannot be socialism or a just economic setup anywhere so long as there is accumulation of wealth. Such concentration takes the bottom out of all the claims for a just social order.

How can the State implement the Directive Principles of State Policy, especially minimising the inequalities of income and opportunities among individuals and groups, when wealth is concentrated in a few influential hands?

Saints and philosophers have expressed the view that the best thing a very wealthy person can do is to spend his wealth for the benefit of fellow human beings. He that does not use his wealth for the good of others while he is living prevents it from doing good to himself when he is dead; and by an egotism that is suicidal cuts himself from the highest pleasure here and also happiness after shedding the mortal coils. When we reflect calmly, we find that it is not money, nor is it intellect that governs the world; it is moral character and intellect associated with moral excellence. Moral character certainly decays when there is accumulation of wealth, accompanied by greed and graft.