Spendthrift


A spendthrift is someone who spends money prodigiously and who is extravagant and recklessly wasteful, often to a point where the spending climbs well beyond his or her means. "Spendthrift" derives from an obsolete sense of the word "thrift" to mean prosperity rather than frugality, so a "spendthrift" is one who has spent their prosperity.
Historical figures who have been characterized as spendthrifts include George IV of Great Britain, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, and Marie Antoinette the Queen of France.
The term is often used by the press as an adjective applied to governments who are thought to be wasting public money.
The opposite would be a frugal person, who uses money wisely, or more negatively a miser, who lives very cheaply and hoards wealth for its own sake.

Etymology

While the pair of words may seem to imply the opposite of its meaning, it follows the tradition of the earlier word "scattergood", the first part being an undoing of the second.

In artwork

's A Rake's Progress displays in a series of paintings the spiralling fortunes of a wealthy but spendthrift son and heir who loses his money, and who as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately Bedlam.

In literature

The modern legal remedy for spendthrifts is usually bankruptcy. However, during the 19th and 20th centuries, a few jurisdictions, such as the U.S. states of Oregon and Massachusetts, experimented with laws under which the family of such a person could have him or her legally declared a "spendthrift" by a court of law. In turn, such persons were considered to lack the legal capacity to enter into binding contracts. Even though such laws made life harder for creditors, they were thought to be justified by the public policy of keeping a spendthrift's family from ending up in the poorhouse or on welfare. Such laws have since been abolished in favor of bankruptcy, which is more favorable to creditors.
Receivership is another equitable remedy for a spendthrift, by which a state-court-appointed trustee or attorney manages and sells the property of the debtor in default on debts.
In conservatorship, a fiduciary handles both the personal affairs and paying the debts of an incapacitated person. Infamously, Theodore Roosevelt was conservator for his brother Elliott Roosevelt I.