Cutting useless expense

Introduction

Beginning this week we read Mozi's economics: moderation in expense, moderation in burial, against extravagance. The three chapters share one logic: spend money where it does something.

节用上, Moderation in Expense I, sets the goal. When a sage governs, "by removing the state's useless expense, its wealth can be doubled." Not by raising taxes and not by conquering land, but by "removing useless expense." He goes item by item. The use of clothing is "to keep out cold in winter and heat in summer"; that done, ornament "that adds nothing is removed." The use of a house is to keep out wind and rain, cold and heat, and to separate inside from out; that done, enough. Weapons should be "light and sharp, strong and hard to break"; boats and carts "sound, sturdy, light and swift." Every item is judged by its use.

There is a passage in the first chapter that is easy to skip: the sage kings favored early marriage, "no man past twenty may fail to set up a household, no woman past fifteen may fail to marry," to increase the population. It does not apply today, but it exposes the real reason behind Mozi's frugality: what the world lacks is people, not money; saving money is so that people can live and be born.

节用中 states the rule most clearly: "Whatever suffices to meet the people's needs, stop there; any added expense that adds nothing to the people's benefit, the sage kings did not undertake." He repeats the list of clothing, food, shelter, transport and weapons, adding food: "enough to fill the stomach, sustain the breath, strengthen the limbs and keep ears and eyes sharp, and stop."

These chapters are not asceticism. Mozi never says enjoyment is wrong. He says that when resources are limited and people are few, every surplus expense means someone goes hungry. It is an argument about priorities.

The Community's frugality offering comes from this rule: each month, tally the spending that "adds nothing to benefit" and give part of it to the 兼爱基金, the care fund.

The three tests

Both chapters rest mainly on the third test, application: cut useless expense and the state grows rich; add expense without benefit and it grows poor.

The first test recurs in the accounts of "the law of the sage kings."

Question one assumption: Mozi treats "use" as objectively judgeable (warmth, shelter, sharpness). Today we would say the use of a garment also includes identity, belonging and pleasure. Does that "add to benefit"? Where is the line? We return to this in week 16 with 非乐上.

For families

• Look at one household object with a child (shoes, a toy, a dish) and ask: what is it for? What part is extra?
• Make a family list of clothing, food, shelter and transport: for each, how much is enough?
• Explain "added expense that adds nothing to benefit, the sage kings did not undertake," and ask the child for an example from their own pocket money.

For chapters

• Reading: from 节用上 the passage "when a sage governs a state," and from 节用中 the passage "whatever suffices to meet the people's needs, stop there."
• Debate: focus on the boundary of "use." Ask everyone to bring their two-column list and compare what people put under "adds nothing."
• Assignment reports: the holder of the frugality offering and care fund assignment reports the quarter's income and spending. In the three-tests review, ask whether the fund's money "adds to benefit."