Auszug aus dem Eintrag "luxe" in der Encyclopédie in deutscher Übersetzung

This is the use that one makes of wealth and industry in order to obtain for oneself a pleasant existence. Luxury has as its principal cause that dissatisfaction with our condition, that wish to be better, which resides, indeed must reside, in all human beings. It is the cause of their passions, their virtues and their vices. (...) Let there be no exclusive privileges any more for certain manufactories and certain types of commerce; let finance not be so lucrative; let burdens and advantages not be heaped so much on the same heads; let idleness be punished by public shame or by removal from office; then you will see – without attacking luxury as such, even without importuning the rich too much – how wealth imperceptibly divides up and increases, how luxury likewise increases and divides up, and everything will return to order.