Regardless of whether wealth is conceived as the value of annual produce or as the quantity of preci… — Adam Smith

Regardless of whether wealth is conceived as the value of annual produce or as the quantity of precious metals, every prodigal is a public enemy and every frugal man a public benefactor, because prodigality diminishes the funds for productive labour while frugality enlarges them.

By Adam Smith, from La Richesse des nations

Key Arguments

Smith presents two conceptions of wealth: 'Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the real wealth and revenue of a country to consist in, whether in the value of the annual produce of its land and labour, as plain reason seems to dictate, or in the quantity of the precious metals which circulate within it, as vulgar prejudices suppose.'
Under the first, prodigality directly reduces the value of the annual produce by diverting subsistence from productive to unproductive hands and by encroaching upon capital.
Under the second, prodigality indirectly causes a future exportation of gold and silver as the diminished produce cannot employ the same quantity of money, forcing excess specie abroad.
In both views, prodigality harms and frugality benefits the public, leading him to declare that 'in either view of the matter, every prodigal appears to be a public enemy, and every frugal man a public benefactor.'

Source Quotes

The country which has this price to pay, will never belong without the quantity of those metals which it has occasion for; and no country will ever long retain a quantity which it has no occasion for. Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the real wealth and revenue of a country to consist in, whether in the value of the annual produce of its land and labour, as plain reason seems to dictate, or in the quantity of the precious metals which circulate within it, as vulgar prejudices suppose; in either view of the matter, every prodigal appears to be a public enemy, and every frugal man a public benefactor. The effects of misconduct are often the same as those of prodigality.

Key Concepts

Whatever, therefore, we may imagine the real wealth and revenue of a country to consist in, whether in the value of the annual produce of its land and labour, as plain reason seems to dictate, or in the quantity of the precious metals which circulate within it, as vulgar prejudices suppose;
in either view of the matter, every prodigal appears to be a public enemy, and every frugal man a public benefactor.

Context

Book II, Chapter III, as Smith synthesizes his arguments about capital, saving, and money into a normative judgment on the social character of frugality and prodigality.