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What are the duties of the wealthy, according to Andrew Carnegie?
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Andrew Carnegie believed that the wealthy have a duty to use their excess wealth for the betterment of society, emphasizing the concept of the "Gospel of Wealth." He argued against individual charity, advocating for investments in public goods like libraries and parks that empower people to improve themselves. Carnegie stressed that the rich should live modestly, avoiding extravagance, and use their resources to create opportunities for others, thus fostering societal progress.
Carnegie begins his essay by stating that:
The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.
He says the society has changed greatly in the last few hundred years, widening the gap between the wealthy and the poor. He contrasts the vast income disparities in industrial America in his time period with the relative lack of difference between a Sioux chief and his subjects.
Carnegie argues that socialism is not the answer to wealth inequality because everyone, from rich to poor, wants to keep possession of their property. However, he also states that competition and property rights do not mean that the wealthy escape the duty they bear to use their excess wealth to help better society.
He states that first, people of wealth should live by "shunning display or extravagance"...
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so that they have ample money on hand to use for the common good and that they should give their wealth away while they are still alive. He disagrees with individual charity, saying giving each poor person a few extra dollars does very little to elevate the common good. He also advises the rich to use their extra wealth primarily to help those who are already helping themselves.
For Carnegie, an ideal project—and one he involved himself in—was supporting free libraries, allowing any person, no matter how humble, access to knowledge. Carnegie sums up his philosophy by asserting that the best use of money is use it to build:
the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise—parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind; works of art, certain to give pleasure and improve the public taste, and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people; in this manner returning their surplus wealth to the mass of their fellows in the forms best calculated to do them lasting good.
Andrew Carnegie believed in the concept of Social Darwinism. According to this theory, the fittest and strongest survive. Those people that are less fit or less strong will not experience as much success. Carnegie believed it was acceptable to make a lot of money. That is what can happen from those that are the strongest and the fittest. However, Carnegie believed those who were wealthy had an obligation to use that wealth for good purposes.
Carnegie believed in a concept called the Gospel of Wealth. According to this philosophy, the wealthy had an obligation to do charitable acts. They needed to do things to help those who were less fortunate. For example, Andrew Carnegie donated a great deal of money to have libraries built. He believed that if people read books and used the library, they might be able to improve their condition in life. Andrew Carnegie was against giving handouts to the less fortunate. He felt that was not the way people would really be helped. Andrew Carnegie believed wealthy people should use their wealth to do things that would allow the less fortunate do things to help themselves.
Andrew Carnegie understood poverty since he experienced it earlier on as a Scottish immigrant. He also understood wealth as the owner of Carnegie Steel Corporation, a company that generated millions in profits. He sought to define the duty of the man of wealth and here is a summary of his ideas and opinions about such a man:
- A wealthy individual should not display opulence and should live a modest life.
- Any excess revenues should be used wisely to benefit the community.
- The wealthy individual should use the experience and wisdom acquired over time to uplift the community.
By providing charity the wealthy individual should exercise wisdom to ensure that the charity does not cause more harm than good. The wealthy should provide an opportunity to those who want to help themselves in body and in mind to do so.
"The best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise parks..."