World 12 · Philosophy of money · Lesson 6 of 13

Should people maximize wealth? What is a good life?

Where more wealth fits in a good life — and where it starts to crowd other things out.

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The idea

Much economic theory models people as trying to maximise their own welfare, often approximated by income or wealth. This “economic human” is a useful simplification for some questions. But should real people actually aim to maximise wealth?

John Stuart Mill, in Utilitarianism, argued that the aim of life is happiness, and distinguished “higher” pleasures — of the intellect, feelings and moral life — from lower ones, suggesting that a life rich in the higher kinds is better than one full of the lower. Aristotle described the good life as flourishing (eudaimonia): living well and acting well over a whole life, with wealth as one of the conditions that makes this possible, but not its goal. Many religious traditions place wealth below duty, love and devotion.

Others defend the pursuit of wealth more directly: it provides security, independence and the means to help others, and the energy people put into building it drives innovation and prosperity. The deeper question is what wealth is being maximised for — and what else is being given up to get it.

Why it matters

Asking what a good life is — and where wealth fits in it — helps people avoid spending their best years maximising something they did not actually want most.

A real example

The situation

Kenji is offered a role that would roughly double his income but leave almost no time for his family, health or music.

What happened

He asks what he would be maximising, and for what. He decides a comfortable income with time for the rest of his life serves his idea of a good life better, and declines — while a colleague with different priorities accepts and is glad to.

The takeaway

The same offer was right for one person and wrong for another, depending on their idea of a good life.

How people actually behave

People often default to maximising income because it is measurable and socially recognised, while harder-to-measure goods — time, health, relationships — lose out without a deliberate choice.

Common mistakes

• Maximising wealth without asking what it is for.
• Assuming everyone’s good life looks like yours.
• Dismissing wealth entirely, ignoring the security and choices it brings.

Different perspectives

Reasonable people disagree here. None of these is presented as the answer.

Wealth is one condition of flourishing

In Aristotle’s view and many like it, some wealth is needed to live well, but maximising it misses the point; the goal is a good life, of which wealth is only a part.

Maximising wealth is rational and useful

Others argue that more wealth expands choices and security for oneself and others, and that people are best placed to decide for themselves how to use it.

Quality of life matters more than quantity of wealth

Mill’s distinction between higher and lower pleasures suggests that what we do with our lives matters more than how much we accumulate.

Questions to think about

• What, for you, is a good life?
• Where does wealth fit in that picture — as a goal, a tool, or a condition?

Try it: A good life in five lines

1. Write five things that would make your life a good one.
2. Mark which need money, and roughly how much.
3. Notice which do not depend on money at all.