[552b]
“This is the
first,” he said. “There certainly is no prohibition of
that sort of thing in oligarchical states. Otherwise some of their citizens
would not be excessively rich, and others out and out paupers.”
“Right.” “ But observe this. When such a
fellow was spending his wealth, was he then of any more use to the state in
the matters of which we were speaking, or did he merely seem to belong to
the ruling class, while in reality he was neither ruler nor helper in the
state, but only a consumer of goods1?” “It is so,” he
said; “he only seemed, but was
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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