Essay On Franklin Way To Wealth

Franklin, based on the title alone, supposedly wrote “The Way to Wealth” to tell Americans what steps they must take to become wealthy. Yet the question remains whether or not that was truly what Franklin was trying to achieve. Was Franklin being serious, that following the steps outlined in “The Way to Wealth” would lead to wealth? Was he joking, being sarcastic, or perhaps trying to achieve something else entirely? While Franklin did not seriously believe that his advice would lead to wealth, Franklin was serious about the morals and virtues he presented in the book. “The Way to Wealth” begins by suggesting that Franklin is irritated about people not wanting to pay their taxes. Franklin emphasizes that taxes were not the real problem, but that people were “taxed twice as much by [their] idleness, three times as much by [their] …show more content…
Later in life, he wanted to ‘better’ himself since he believed that he was immoral in his earlier years. He developed his own list of thirteen virtues, and each day he tried his best to master each virtue. He spent a great deal of time and effort on these virtues, so, evidently, morals and virtues were important to Franklin. When Franklin wrote “The Way to Wealth”, he cared more about telling people how to be moral than he did about telling people how to make money. Thus, “The Way to Wealth” is not the way to wealth, but the key to moral non-poverty. If one does follow the advice Franklin presents, he will be moral, at least in Franklin’s view, and while he won’t be homeless, he won’t necessarily be exceptionally wealthy either. This difference between the thoughts and actions of the earlier Franklin and the Franklin who wrote this book shows how Franklin changed his ideals throughout his life. Because of these changed ideals, Franklin wrote “The Way to Wealth” not to tell people the way to monetary wealth, but to tell people the way to spiritual and moral