Spending and saving

How much is too much to spend on myself?

The Church sets no figure; it sets a priority and a test of motive. Those who hold goods for their own use “should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor”. CCC 2405 And John Paul II put the test this way: “It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards ‘having’ rather than ‘being’”, and which wants more “not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself”. Centesimus Annus 36

The limit falls on desire rather than on the sum. The tenth commandment “forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit”, and the text the Catechism quotes says why no number would settle it: “Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched.” CCC 2536

Spending is also a choice with effects on others. Purchasing power “must be used in the context of the moral demands of justice and solidarity”, with “the duty to give from one's ‘abundance', and sometimes even out of one's needs”, and with an eye to how what is bought was made: working conditions and the protection of the environment. CSDC 359

What is offered in place of the next purchase is not a smaller life. Francis called sobriety “liberating”: “It is not a lesser life or one lived with less intensity”, and “even living on little, they can live a lot”. Laudato si’ 223 He named the old lesson that “less is more”, and “a growth marked by moderation and the capacity to be happy with little”. Laudato si’ 222

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Parable of the Rich Fool, 1627. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

Lk 12:20

2405

Goods of production - material or immaterial - such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.

2536

The tenth commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:

When the Law says, "You shall not covet," these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, never quenched. Thus it is written: "He who loves money never has money enough." Roman Catechism, III, 37; cf. Sir 5:8.

358

Consumers, who in many cases have a broad range of buying power well above the mere subsistence level, exercise significant influence over economic realities by their free decisions regarding whether to put their money into consumer goods or savings. In fact, the possibility to influence the choices made within the economic sector is in the hands of those who must decide where to place their financial resources. Today more than in the past it is possible to evaluate the available options not only on the basis of the expected return and the relative risk but also by making a value judgment of the investment projects that those resources would finance, in the awareness that “the decision to invest in one place rather than another, in one productive sector rather than another, is always a moral and cultural choice”. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 839-840.

359

Purchasing power must be used in the context of the moral demands of justice and solidarity, and in that of precise social responsibilities. One must never forget “the duty of charity ..., that is, the duty to give from one's ‘abundance', and sometimes even out of one's needs, in order to provide what is essential for the life of a poor person”. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 839. This responsibility gives to consumers the possibility, thanks to the wider circulation of information, of directing the behaviour of producers, through preferences — individual and collective — given to the products of certain companies rather than to those of others, taking into account not only the price and quality of what is being purchased but also the presence of correct working conditions in the company as well as the level of protection of the natural environment in which it operates.

360

The phenomenon of consumerism maintains a persistent orientation towards “having” rather than “being”. This confuses the “criteria for correctly distinguishing new and higher forms of satisfying human needs from artificial new needs which hinder the formation of a mature personality”. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 839. To counteract this phenomenon it is necessary to create “life- styles in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments”. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 36: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 839. It is undeniable that ways of life are significantly influenced by different social contexts, for this reason the cultural challenge that consumerism poses today must be met with greater resolve, above all in consideration of future generations, who risk having to live in a natural environment that has been pillaged by an excessive and disordered consumerism. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37: AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 83 (1991) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1991), 840.

Laudato si’ May 24, 2015
Centesimus Annus May 1, 1991

From the Catechism

From the Social Doctrine

From the Magisterium