Comparing Carnegie's Views On Poverty And Wealth

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Social Darwinist William Graham Sumner believed that helping the poor was unwise because it interfered with the law of nature and would weaken the evolution of the human race by preserving those unfit. His ideas gave some during this period a scientific reason for their racial intolerance. Andrew Carnegie believed the complete opposite. In his article “Wealth,” he argued that the wealthy had a responsibility given to them by God to carry out projects of civic philanthropy for the benefit of society as a whole. In other words, he believed that the rich should help the poor for the good of society. He himself practiced this belief by distributing $350 million of his fortune to support the building of libraries, universities, and various public institutions. So, …show more content…

He believed that civilization was not ruled by natural selection, but by human intelligence, and that human intelligence had the ability to shape society as it wished. He also believed that an active government engaged positive planning, which was societies best hope. Ward and Carnegie both believed in helping the poor, while Sumner believed helping them would weaken the society. Henry George believed that poverty was a side-effect of progress that was inevitable. He published a book in 1879 called “Progress and Poverty” that pushed readers to look more critically at the laissez-faire economics and its effects. His solution to poverty was to put a single tax on the land. Edward Bellamy rivaled Henry George. He wrote “Looking Backward,” which described the experiences of a man who went into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and awoke in 2000, where he found a new social order. The society had formed through peace and evolution, and all of the trusts of the 1800's combined to form one government controlled trust, which distributed the abundance of the industrial economy equally among all

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