Luxury Is Not an Illness That Needs Cured

Donald J. Kochan, an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center and an associate professor at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., wrote Monday in the Los Angeles Times about Ben Franklin's views on "luxury" and how they apply to today's society.

On July 26, 1784, some 226 years ago yesterday, Franklin argued in a letter against the need for a "remedy for luxury." Kochan writes that among politicians today, "Luxury is a demonizing four-letter word that plays well with the public."

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