“He that buys what he hath no need of shall soon learn to sell what he needs.”Benjamin Franklin · Almanahul sărmanului Richard · 1758 · 1758
Wants multiply, resources don't: what you buy on a whim is eventually paid for from what you need.
The line sketches an economic slippery slope: money spent on superfluous things never returns, and when a real need arrives, selling what you own becomes the only option. The mechanism is that wants multiply while resources do not. Someone who buys a second gadget on credit may end up, after a few missed installments, selling the bicycle he depends on to get to work.
Franklin does not fear big purchases so much as small, repeated ones. No useless expense feels decisive at the moment you make it. The danger lies in accumulation: each small sum vanishes without a trace, and the total only shows up when it is too late. It is like a door that creaks slightly every day; you never fix it, and over a whole winter the house's warmth leaks away. That is why his test matters for every purchase, not only the expensive ones: do I need this, or does this moment simply want it? The next step is to see why our own minds make this test so hard to pass.
Why it matters Relevant before any impulse purchase, especially status items bought on credit, as a simple test: is this a need or just a passing want?