Luxury. The word alone conjures up visions of visions of attractive, desirable lifestyle choices, yet it also faces criticism as a moral vice harmful to both the self and society. Engaging with ideas from business, marketing, and economics, The Vice of Luxury takes on the challenging task of naming how much is too much in today's consumer-oriented society. David Cloutier's critique goes to the heart of a fundamental contradiction. Though overconsumption and materialism make us uneasy, they also seem inevitable in advanced economies. Current studies of economic ethics focus on the structural problems of poverty, of international trade, of workers' rights -- but rarely, if ever, do such studies speak directly to the excesses of the wealthy, including the middle classes of advanced economies. Cloutier proposes a new approach to economic ethics that focuses attention on our everyday economic choices. He shows why luxury is a problem, explains how to identify what counts as the vice of luxury today, and develops an ethic of consumption that is grounded in Christian moral convictions.
Introduction: Why Luxury? Part One1. Luxury in History: A Brief Survey2. Neglected Vice: How Luxury Degrades Us, Our Work, and Our Communities3. Neglected Sacramentality: Why Luxury Blocks a Spirituality of Our Material Goods4. Neglecting Positionality: Why Luxury Does Not Necessarily Help the Economy Part Two5. Luxury Defined6. Luxury and Social Context: Who Has More Than Enough?7. Luxury and Necessity: What Is Enough?8. Luxury and Sacrament: What Is Beyond Enough? Conclusion: Resisting with Discipline, Responding with Hope BibliographyIndex
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