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“As riches and rich men are honored in the State, virtue and the virtuous are dishonored.”

The accumulation of gold in the treasury of private individuals is the ruin of timocracy; they invent illegal modes of expenditure; for what do they or their wives care about the law?

Yes, indeed.

And then one, seeing another grow rich, seeks to rival him, and thus the great mass of the citizens become lovers of money.

Likely enough.

And so they grow richer and richer, and the more they think of making a fortune the less they think of virtue; for when riches and virtue are placed together in the scales of the balance, the one always rises as the other falls.

True.

And in proportion as riches and rich men are honoured in the State, virtue and the virtuous are dishonoured.

Clearly.

And what is honoured is cultivated, and that which has no honour is neglected.

– – Plato’s Republic Book VIII

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • BillH August 8, 2017, 7:37 AM

    Take ’em out an’ kill ’em. Right after we kill the lawyers and politicians (yeah, I know, redundant).

  • Sam L. August 8, 2017, 10:28 AM

    I note Mr. Trump is NOT on this list.

  • ghostsniper August 8, 2017, 2:29 PM

    Nor is Jeff Bezos.
    The gov’t should steal all their stuff and give it to other people – the american way.

    “democracy, the god that killed everybody”

  • Sam L. August 9, 2017, 9:36 AM

    ghost, that’s because Gates beat him out. They both live in Seattle, or close to it.

  • Snakepit Kansas August 9, 2017, 6:37 PM

    God bless Charles Koch. He employs my wife and about 70,000 other people worldwide. He recently planted hundreds of oak and ash trees around the Koch facility here in Wichita. When driving by, there are often whitetail deer and turkey on the campus area. He eats in the company cafeteria along with the employees. My wife said one day she was in line and turned around and he was in line right behind her, waiting his turn.

    Nobody every got a job from a poor man. The Koch’s are Capitalism at its best.