Dionysus on a Bike

Proverbs 3:13-18 – 5/6/2026

Happy are those who find wisdom
and those who get understanding,
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold.
-Proverbs 3:13-14 (NRSVue)

Hoarded wealth is evil, on this the communist and the Christian are in agreement. The reason the accumulation of wealth is evil is usually understood to be its affect on those without wealth. Hoarded plenty comes at the expense of those who do not have enough. The bounty of the earth and the fruits of human labor, sufficient to meet everyone’s needs so that they may lead a life of flourishing, are unevenly divided, secured surplus wealth being at the expense of those who will go hungry and go without the goods of a society of plenty.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem with Capitalism and every other economic system that allows vast disparities of wealth to exist. The articulation of the problem is simple, which is the reason I never could get into political philosophy as a scholarly discipline. The arguments against wealth accumulation and in favor of equitable distribution are so obvious to me as to be philosophically uninteresting. I have no desire to debate those who believe that there is some moral or practical justification for the hoarding of wealth in ways that cause others to remain in poverty and need. Such debates are academic exercises that obscure the actual suffering and need of those who are deprived by the accumulation of excessive wealth by others.

While the moral arguments against capitalism and wealth accumulation seem obvious and beyond debate, from my perspective, there are other reasons to reject wealth accumulation. Proverbs 3:13-14 from today’s Lectionary Reading points toward other reasons for abandoning the project of accruing material wealth. Not only does such accumulation deprive others of the goods that might allow them to flourish alongside others in their community, hoarding wealth also derives the wealthy person of goods. Wisdom, true understanding of what makes an excellent, worthwhile, thriving human life is incompatible with securing significant wealth. Not only are riches bad for those who go without, such riches corrupt those who have them. Inequality and being in a position that sets one apart from one’s community prevents understanding, compassion, and connection. The one who possesses wealth is cut off from the conditions of existence that their neighbors live in; the rich live in a different world than the one the rest of us share, and as such they cannot comprehend that world or live wisely in it.

Wealth destroys the human world, not just for those who are deprived but from those who have far more than they could ever want or need. Wisdom, in part, consists in understanding and comporting oneself to the world as it is, not an imaginary world of our own making. Hoarded wealth creates such an imaginary world for the one who has it, cutting them off from the understanding of the world where needs are met by a community working together as a whole, where each depends on the other and all have what they need. Wisdom then is only possible when we share a world of mutual dependence, not set ourselves apart from that world by supposing ourselves to be independent and self-sufficient and so cutting ourselves off from wisdom and understanding of our shared social world. Even the Capitalist can find self-interested reasons to reject their privilege and work toward a just world for all where all’s needs are met. Their wisdom depends on it.

Further Reading:

Timothy Weidel, a former colleague of mine, wrote a dissertation arguing that Capitalism is not only bad for the poor; it is bad for those with plenty as well.