Benefits of recession?

"Real poverty . . . is never to be recommended. Impossible to live a thoughtful and productive life if one is locked into a cycle of unremitting drudgery which would entail the end of literature and music, romance and adventure, and everything good. It isn't poverty I wish, but rather the end of the sort of sumptuousness that dissolves self-discipline and grants giant fortunes to the worst people in our country . . ."