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What is Andrew Carnegie's view on charity?
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Carnegie saw philanthropy, if not exactly charity, as the duty of the very wealthy. As one of the richest and most powerful businessmen of his era, Carnegie generally opposed attempts to restrain the power of men like himself, whether through labor organization or government action. He thought, in short, that businessmen should be left alone to make as much money as they could. Society, he thought, would benefit from this, because it would foster innovation and the creation of wealth. But Carnegie also believed that a man "who dies rich, dies disgraced." He claimed that the rich should not simply bequeath all of their riches to their heirs or leave them to be donated to charities upon their death.
Carnegie saw philanthropy, if not exactly charity, as the duty of the very wealthy. As one of the richest and most powerful businessmen of his era, Carnegie generally opposed attempts to restrain the power of men like himself, whether through labor organization or government action. He thought, in short, that businessmen should be left alone to make as much money as they could. Society, he thought, would benefit from this, because it would foster innovation and the creation of wealth. But Carnegie also believed, according to one of his most famous quotes, that a man "who dies rich, dies disgraced." He claimed, in an essay entitled "Wealth," that the rich should not simply bequeath all of their riches to their heirs or leave them to be donated to charities upon their death. Rather, the rich should, after amassing wealth, see that it is put to good use. Carnegie believed that...
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men like himself were the best suited to determine how their money should be spent, and that they should use it to provide ambitious, hard-working people with an opportunity for advancement. According to Carnegie, "the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise." For him, this meant institutions of learning, art museums, and especially libraries, where people could go to educate themselves. He believed that giving money to the very poor was "rewarding vice," because he assumed that the poor were only poor because of their own laziness or wastefulness. So he did not believe in charity per se, but rather in using wealth to create opportunities for future generations of leaders. His philanthropic endeavors, especially his libraries, were aimed at this end.
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Andrew Carnegie, who was one of the people most closely connected to the idea of the "Gospel of Wealth," believed that charity was something that should be given and administered by the rich. Carnegie believed in the social Darwinist idea that the rich were the "fittest." He believed that they were successful because they were simply better than everyone else. Given this belief, it made sense that the rich should control charity. They should not give money and let someone else decide how the money was to be spent. Instead, they should decide for themselves how it would be spent. If that meant putting conditions on the people who received the charity, that was fine. It was in the best interests of all concerned if the rich acted paternalistically towards the poor.