he future. The next generation will be
stronger and happier for the prudent foresight of this generation in
overcoming obstacles to health and wisdom and virtue. To leave wealth thus
invested is far better for successors than to leave it in form for ready
consumption upon temporary wants. Thus all prudent consumption of wealth
has for its basis the genuine welfare of a continuous society of human
beings subject to improvement. Any forming community looks surely to
future welfare when it invests wealth in good homes, good schools and good
churches.

Chapter XXV. Imprudent Consumption.

_Society interested in imprudence._--This fact, that the wealth of each
generation is so largely dependent upon the prudence of the preceding,
emphasizes the importance of public sentiment in favor of prudential
consumption. Public criticism naturally attacks the most noticeable
failures of prudence, and it therefore seems worth while to consider some
of those imprudent forms of consumption which society may seek to prevent.
It is also proper to consider the ways in which society may act for
prevention of imprudence.

_Luxurious consumption._--The question of luxury in the same society with
extreme poverty is always prominent. Luxury is supposed to be extravagant
expenditure in meeting individual wants. Though such wants may be real and
legitimate, lavish expenditure by any portion of a community seems at
first sight a trespass upon common welfare. Some have considered that
person wanting in good will to his fellows who expends upon his own
comfort more than his neighbors can afford. Others define luxury to be
expenditure for living above the average expenditure in the whole
community. Still others regard any expenditure a luxury which is not
needed to maintain physical powers.

It is easy to see that all these efforts at definition are imperfect,
because the idea of luxury implies such a mode of life as does not
contribute to the total welfare, and each one's idea of total welfare
enters into his definition of luxury. It is an evident fact that the
so-called luxuries of one generation become the actual necessities of the
next. This is because the life of the race means more and includes more
with each succeeding generation. To live in the twentieth century will
mean, as it has always meant in the past, to have such exercise of every
ability as circumstances permit. Luxury is therefore always relative to
the duties one has to p