Essay on Man by Alexander Pope

Though saving money is usually thought virtuous, I think we've lost the concept of miserliness. And maybe that's a problem with the 1%, not that they have so much wealth but that they fail to spend it. Instead it's heaped up in hedge funds and offshore accounts, where it's not doing anyone any good.

Alexander Pope saw miserliness as choking off a country's economic health.

Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,

Sees but a backward steward for the poor;

This year a reservoir, to keep and spare;

The next, a fountain, spouting through his heir,

In lavish streams to quench a country’s thirst,

And men and dogs shall drink him till they burst.