The Prince Question 3

When is generosity a good thing? To Machiavelli, in Chapter 20, bullet 2 , giving people weapons and/or other material things is a bad idea. If the prince would have to take it away, then the people would be insulted and would think the prince had considered them distrustful. Being generous would mean that if he gave one thing to one person, then the rest of the people would want something as well. With all of the nagging from the people and the thought of being insulted, the prince would have a hard time keeping up with all of the complaints among the people. If the prince were to be generous and give out to the people, then the ones who did not receive anything would hold it against him and when the time came for the prince to need those people, they would not remain loyal to him, which could cause problems with the problem that was needed to be fixed. Hatred would be created among the people towards the prince, which would bring disloyalty and complications for the prince, since it was he who would be in trouble with the people. Because of these issues, the prince has an extremely stressful life within his kingdom, since he has to watch what he does and with whom so he will not offend anyone and cause turmoil throughout the land.