ABSTRACT
Income is an instrumental good and therefore lacks any intrinsic value. The worth of income instead lies entirely in its usefulness in achieving other ends. Think about television programs focused on the lives of the rich. What these shows celebrate is not the absolute size of a person’s income, but the comparatively sumptuous lifestyle the money affords. If the show featured an affluent person who lived modestly, it would not be entertaining. Even for people of ordinary means, income matters for what it allows them to do, like buying a home. Perhaps the best description of income’s instrumental value comes from the philosopher Aristotle who observed, “The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful for the sake of something else.” 1
