LAD/Blog #22: Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" reveals how the difference between the rich and the poor have benefitted civilization. Carnegie incorporates the idea of Social Darwinism, or survival of the fittest when he expresses that, "while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because insures the survival of the fittest in every department." Therefore, Carnegie displays the imbalance in society which had been beneficial since the most prepared citizens are the people who advance.  he started that this gap between rich and poor should be embraced because it will ultimately benefit society. This idea, though, only gives wealth to a precious few. The laws are biased toward the wealth since the government has a lassie-faire approach. He offers possible solutions for dealing with excess wealth, for the good of society. These solutions are: leaving money for families, the public can use it, or the wealthy can give it out and use it as needed. Carnegie then goes off on a tangent to say how Communism with an equal distribution of wealth will not be used since there is no one that will be willing to share their small sums of money, a larger sum of money means that money can be used instead of needing to be saved. The wealthy therefore have duties to take care of, including living a modest life, and dictating trust funds those who he would like to share his money with. Therefore, the man of wealth is one that has the experience and willingness to do better by the poor than they themselves can.

Andrew Carnegie is similar to Bill Gates, who donates money to a foundation to increase healthcare and reduce extreme poverty. 

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