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Define for yourself the meaning of THE GOOD LIFE
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The meaning of the good life can be interpreted in multiple ways, depending on the person. When it comes to my interpretation, it is when a person accomplished his/her objective and feels content about what they contributed to themselves or their community. If the person is fortunate enough, that said person should contribute to the overall society as best as humanly possible. To live a good life, a person should contribute to a community to fulfill the needs of the community and that path to living the best life you can have. According to Bertrand Russell, The Happy Life, he implies that we should be selfish to an extent, but put your own happiness first before anyone else. Selfish to the point where you are not being considered a narcissist …show more content…
Carnegie was a famous business man so he has the personal experience of having a vast amount of wealth. According to Carnegie, you should not only donate to charities to charities but to be aware about where and who you donations will eventually end up to. Your generous donations could end up supplying a person’s addictions, but at the end of it, the outcome of giving a part of you salary to someone who is in need will always outshine the negativity. Personally, I always believe that everyone who is capable enough should go out of their way to help the community no matter how small the deed it is. Having the satisfaction of donating to a great cause can go a long way to helping a person who is in desperate need. So no matter if the money is going to satisfy a homeless addiction or to gid rid of his starvation, it will help you achieve a “good life.” In the end, the true “good life” according to Carnegie, is to help someone who needs …show more content…
The population of the world is constantly growing and the bridge between the rich and the poor is multiplying. He continuously brings about the “sharing of resources” with the increasing population, making an assumption that “each American would have to share the available resources with more than eight people” (Hardin, Lifeboat Ethics). Hardin is basically trying to warn the world—more specifically the United States—that we should not share the resources or the money or the society in the end will collapse. He focuses on the fact that the government should be able to adapt and adjust to the population growth, but the government is failing to address these issues. Hardin is pushing us to change our view and perspective on what is in front of us. Hardin gave an example of the problems of the population to show his views on the “good
He explained that they had the responsibility to be philanthropic and donate their wealth to benefit society while they are living. If the wealthy keep their riches until they are dead, then it simply implies that the deceased would have wanted to bring the money with them if it were possible. Carnegie also explained that family members should not leave each other inheritances. By leaving them with a large amount of money, it gives family members no motivation to work hard; becoming lackadaisical. He wrote how one should contribute to society through charity, by donating towards a physical cause; and not by giving money to a homeless person.
Andrew Carnegie, was a strong-minded man who believed in equal distribution and different forms to manage wealth. One of the methods he suggested was to tax revenues to help out the public. He believed in successors enriching society by paying taxes and death taxes. Carnegie’s view did not surprise me because it was the only form people could not unequally distribute their wealth amongst the public, and the mediocre American economy. Therefore, taxations would lead to many more advances in the American economy and for public purposes.
In June 1889, Andrew Carnegie wrote an article known as, “The Gospel of Wealth,” or “Wealth,” which portrays the responsibility of philanthropy. In the article, Carnegie acknowledges the “three modes in which wealth can be disposed of, which are, “it can be left to the families of the decedents; or it can be bequeathed for public purposes… or, finally, it can be administered by its possessors during their lives…” Moreover, Carnegie believes a rich man shouldn’t leave a fortune to their families and men shouldn’t wait until death to donate money for public uses. In addition, Carnegie (1889) portrays that, the only mode for a rich man to use their fortune is, “to produce the most beneficial results for the community- the man of wealth thus becoming the … agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer; doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves… The man who dies rich dies disgraced,” (doc 8). Nevertheless, Carnegie believes that a man of wealth should donate as much money as possible during his life to become much good in the world while living. This evidence helps explain why Andrew Carnegie was a hero because he acknowledges that a man of wealth should donate to those in need while living which makes Carnegie a courageous
Speaking of where that money, in document #10 we see a small cartoon post from The Saturday Globe, Utica, New York, July 9, 1892. At the bottom it conveys, “Forty Millionaire Carnegie in his Great Double Role” With this message, it displays Carnegie both giving away a Library to Pittsburgh and money to Scotland, and cutting wages from workers. This drawing signifies what he does with the money rather than paying his workers with that money. Looking at wages in document #7 helps to see how much a worker are paid in a chart, even though iron and steel workers look like they have decent wages(daily hrs. 10.67, daily wages 1.81), it was to many unfair wages. Compare this to Carnegie’s daily “wage” was ninety two grand! Confirming wages are unfair.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835. His father, Will, was a weaver and a follower of Chartism, a popular movement of the British working class that called for the masses to vote and to run for Parliament in order to help improve conditions for workers. The exposure to such political beliefs and his family's poverty made a lasting impression on young Andrew and played a significant role in his life after his family immigrated to the United States in 1848. Andrew Carnegie amassed wealth in the steel industry after immigrating from Scotland as a boy. He came from a poor family and had little formal education.
During the 1900’s the media and public eye never thought to question Andrew Carnegie’s motives. Andrew Carnegie wanted people to see him as a caring person, and achieved this by giving large amounts of money to charity. However, the money donated wasn’t his own earnings. He maintained a good image in the media because he was always giving to charity; but what the people didn’t consider is where he got the money from. The question of whether or not Andrew Carnegie was a hero will rely on three important articles. A hero is someone who cares about doing what is best for the people rather than for themselves, they aren’t worried about how others view them, and are strong willed so that they will not change their minds when they’ve made a decision. Andrew Carnegie’s focus on money and fame combined with his duplicitous and hypocritical nature does not equal to hero; instead, he stole the rightful wages of his workers, defends
Garret Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” is an article that identifies the nation’s current problems and predicaments that can’t be resolved through the use of technical solutions. Hardin’s work heavily focuses on overpopulation, a prominent and unceasing issue that significantly distorts and affects the stability of the Earth and the abundance of the planet’s resources. In his article, he mentioned some reasonable and important solutions to overpopulation, but he also explained its downside and how the said solutions may not be ideal and practical. “Tragedy of the Commons” revealed that the human population will continue to flourish and how it will be greatly detrimental to our society unless individuals get the education that they need and
In Harold C. Livesay’s Andrew Carnegie and the rise of Big Business, Andrew Carnegie’s struggles and desires throughout his life are formed into different challenges of being the influential leader of the United States of America. The book also covers the belief of the American Dream in that people can climb up the ladder of society by hard work and the dream of becoming an influential citizen, just as Carnegie did.
This leads the reader to rationalize that since there a greater amount of poor people, it is more expected of them to abuse of anything that is given to them. Hardin does so by mentioning “A world food bank is thus a commons in disguise. Hardin goes on to suggest that because of the growth differential between both classes: “88 percent of today’s children are born poor, and only 12 percent rich.” Hardin effectively draws the conclusion that it is hard for one country to prosper when poor people are not only ignorant to fair share but are also the winning population size. Hardin then suggests that if we continue to fend third world countries, they will never effectively develop the way a first world class has. And if a first world class continues to support those countries, their budget will begin to increase in terms of helping which will then cause tensions between the people who support
Carnegie did not believe in spending his money on frivolous things, instead he gave most of his fortune back to special projects that helped the public, such as libraries, schools and recreation. Carnegie believes that industries have helped both the rich and the poor. He supports Social Darwinism. The talented and smart businessmen rose to the top. He acknowledges the large gap between the rich and the poor and offers a solution. In Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie, he states, “the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves” (25). He believes the rich should not spend money foolishly or pass it down to their sons, but they should put it back into society. They should provide supervised opportunities for the poor to improve themselves. The rich man should know “the best means of benefiting the community is to place within its reach the ladders upon which the aspiring can rise- free libraries, parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and mind” (Carnegie p. 28). Also, Carnegie does not agree they should turn to Communism to redistribute wealth. Individuals should have the right to their earnings. Corporations should be allowed to act as it please with little to no government
Andrew Carnegie and Walter Rauschenbusch represent two opposing sides in the integration of Christian faith into society. Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth stated that the rich must reinvest their earnings into social programs that would benefit the poor without providing excess money that would enable them to spend frivolously on items that would not actually improve their overall situation. In contrast, Rauschenbusch was more concerned with the physical well being of those in lower classes. Both men wrote their works as a moral response to the rapid changes industrialization produced in their economies; similarly, today’s economy is rapidly changing as a result of technological development. However, morality has struggled to keep up with the exponential advancement in technology, leaving people with little
What is the American Dream? There are a myriad of aspects to it, but one general idea: the ideal life. It is making a lot of money, being respected, and triumphing difficult situations. The American Dream has been pursued by many, but only few make it all the way.
Singer’s argument may have swayed many people to donate their dispensable income to children in need despite the fact that it has many fundamental flaws. He argues that we should give away the majority of our earnings to charity. Since Singer wants the reader to donate such a large amount of money, the readers are given no choice but to contribute nothing whatsoever. His solution is not realistic and does not take into account the long-term financial impact this type of donation contribution system would have on a country’s economy.
Garrett Hardin developed the concept of the Tragedy of the Commons. The basic concept is a giant pasture that is for everyone to have a piece of land and for the herdsman to have as many cattle a possible to sustain the land. This land should be able to maintain itself for quite a long time because of cattle dying as well as the population staying relatively stable. But at some point the population will begin growing and the herdsman will want to maximize their profits by having more cattle, which in return the land cannot sustain. The herdsman receives all the profit from adding one more animal to the pasture so the herdsman will eventually begin adding more cattle, but the overgrazing caused by that added animal will destroy the land making it uninhabitable for everyone. Thus you have the tragedy of the commons. For all the herdsman on the common, it is the only rational decision to make, adding another animal. This is the tragedy. Each man is compelled to add an infinite number of cattle to increase his profits, but in a world with limited resources it is impossible to continually grow. When resources are held "in common" with many people having access and ownership to it, then a rational person will increase their exploitation of it because the individual is receiving all the benefit, while everyone is sharing the costs.
The good life is something everybody has to work for if they want to attain it. It does not come without effort. The cost of the good life are all the trade-offs and sacrifices we give up by making choices for the greater good. It is giving up the things that make us feel secure and that make living life feel easier. It involves choices that will allow us to learn how to understand the world and form a closer relationship with the natural world. Moreover, It involves choices to take risk as well as action in order pave way to the good life.