Luxury and Economic Development: David Hume and Adam Smith

David Hume thought that a taste for luxury was desirable, because it promoted economic and political development (it brought down feudalism, among other things). Adam Smith's early works follow a very similar line though, unlike Hume, he saw a taste for luxury as rather contemptible despite its desirable effects. In the Wealth of Nations , however, saving is the key to growth, suggesting that spending on luxury harms growth, but Smith wanted to hang on to the arguments he had taken from Hume. This may explain a number of oddities and inconsistencies in the Wealth of Nations.