Aristotle: Spending Other’s Money
on Sunday, August 22, 2010Aristotle Money Quotation saying that kids, criminals and congress members spend money that is not their own and each need overseeing of their use of that cash.
“Three groups spend other people’s money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision” — Aristotle
Aristotle seems to be making the point that children, thieves, and politicians are similar in that they all tend to spend funds that do not actually belong to them. For children, he may mean they spend parents’ money without fully understanding financial responsibilities.
For thieves, of course, they illegally take what is not theirs. And for politicians, Aristotle could be arguing they have a tendency to overspend public funds or tax dollars without sufficient oversight.
His overall message appears to be that when people make use of other people’s resources, whether rightfully or not, supervision is important to prevent waste or abuse. Reasonable people may disagree on how closely different groups require monitoring according to their circumstances.
Birthday: January 6, 384 BC – Death: March 7, 322 BC