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Full Idea
If people are acquisitive but consumption is limited, the inevitable result is the accumulation of capital through the compulsion to save. The restraints on consumption naturally served to increase wealth by enabling the productive investment of capital.
Gist of Idea
Acquisition and low consumption lead to saving, investment, and increased wealth
Source
Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [1904], 5)
Book Ref
Weber,Max: 'Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism' [Routledge 2001], p.116
A Reaction
[compressed. He also quotes John Wesley saying this] In a nutshell, this is how the protestant ethic (esp. if puritan) drives capitalism. It also needs everyone to have a 'calling', and a rebellion against monasticism in favour of worldly work.
| 20719 | Punish the heretic, but be indulgent to the sinner [Weber] |
| 20725 | The idea of duty in one's calling haunts us, like a lost religion [Weber] |
| 20722 | Acquisition and low consumption lead to saving, investment, and increased wealth [Weber] |
| 20724 | When asceticism emerged from the monasteries, it helped to drive the modern economy [Weber] |
| 20717 | Capitalism is not unlimited greed, and may even be opposed to greed [Weber] |
| 20718 | Modern western capitalism has free labour, business separate from household, and book-keeping [Weber] |