Imagine being one of the richest men in the history of the United States. Think about having the most money out of everyone else in the nation. Only a few men have lived to be in that position. One of those men happened to be Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in the United States at one point. When you think of rich people, you imagine the type of people who are very selfish, rude, full of greed, and ungrateful. You probably think of people who became rich through heritage or luck and never did anything for the rest of the community. Andrew Carnegie does not fall in that category. He was more of a Captain of Industry than a Robber Baron. He did not play the robber baron role as he did as a captain of industry. Carnegie did
This struck Carnegie with confusion because he didn’t really plan anything important to do with his money but one thing. Andrew Carnegie was a philanthropist. A philanthropist is a person who generously donates their money to good causes. Carnegie believed what all philanthropists believed in. Philanthropists believe in not keeping money for themselves but to give it to the less fortunate. Carnegie would rather give money to public services rather than his family. He stated, “Why should men leave great fortunes to their children? If this is done from affection, is this not misguided affection?”(Document B 2). He now knew what his main objective was as a philanthropist that gained all the money in the country. Andrew Carnegie himself stated, “The duty of the man of wealth (is to) set an example of modest...living...:;and...to consider all surplus revenues...as trust funds… 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 for themselves…”(Document B 4). So from what you can tell so far about philanthropy you knew that he would give away his money. He once gave away approximately $350,695,653 (Document C). It shows that he’s not your average and greedy rich person and would rather give
He would always make sure to measure his wealth from becoming greedy. As a philanthropist he knew he must not keep all the money. Once in awhile he would write to himself notes like such,”Thirty three and an income of $50,000 per annum. By this time two years, I can so arrange all my business as to secure at least $50,000 per annum. Beyond this never earn-- make no effort to increase fortunate, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes. Cast aside business forever except others”(BGE 4). He knew he had to help the community one way or another. He then knew what the most effective way was to help the people around him.Andrew Carnegie had always loved to read. He even wrote books himself and got them published.Carnegie believed during that time that education was one of the most important things that every person needed. Carnegie supported education a lot, so it made sense that he wanted to give money to support education and reading. According to a portion of his total philanthropy, he gave away about $100,000,000 to education. During that time, there were so many difficulties to get an education. Most people left the education field and became industrial workers. Many educational buildings like schools,institutes,universities,and even the people working in them were in desperate of money so he really did them a huge
Andrew Carnegie, the monopolist of the steel industry, was one of the worst of the Robber Barons. Like the others, he was full of contradictions and tried to bring peace to the world, but only caused conflicts and took away the jobs of many factory workers. Carnegie Steel, his company, was a main supplier of steel to the railroad industry.
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.
Even though these men attempted to build a stable foundation for America to grow on, their negative aspects dramatically outweighed the positive. Even though Andrew Carnegie donated his fortunes to charity, he only acquired the money through unjustifiable actions. As these industrialists continued to monopolize companies through illegal actions, plutocracy- government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution. Sequentially, they used their power to prevent controls by state legislatures. These circumstances effect the way one
Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy made him a hero because he helped more people than harm in the long run, by this I mean he helped other countries. He also sets a great example to everyone that helping others or someone is not something you need to wait to do when you are no longer living. If someone needed help and even a stable person had the choice to help but until they are no longer alive has little meaning. Perhaps it would be too late when the person isn’t around anymore. Its about what someone can do to help when they are around, it is about what a person can do in the time of need even if it is not much but a little of anything can go a long way. In (Doc C) there is a list of amounts of money that Carnegie has donated to various places which in total he has donated well over $271m but aside from that his corporation is giving out about $100m a year, most of it to education (Doc C)
In my opinion Carnegie is a truly a hero. Today we don’t see a lot of men giving their money away when they die. Carnegie did change many lives for the better, and he did help save lives as well. In Document B Carnegie would word how the wealthy would never do anything with their money for the better, he didn’t want to became one of them. Carnegie quote was “ The man who dies rich dies disgraced”, by that he means why would you all that money go to waste, you are going to be died, that money could help save many lives that is why he was one who changed
The biography begins when the impoverished Carnegie family leaves their home in Scotland having been replaced by machines in the Industrial Revolution. People started sailing to America because their “old home no longer promised anything at all” (Livesay 14). They end up earning twice as much as they did in Scotland with their son Tom in school, the parents Margaret and Will shoe-binding, and Andrew working as a bobbin boy. Money earned without work was an opening to corruption in the eyes of a Republican nation and it was also assumed that hereditary wealth had caused the decline of Europe (Lena). Carnegie soon rises from poor bobbin boy to railroad superintendent, all the way to manager at the Pennsylvania Railroad. "I have made millions since, Carnegie later claimed, but none of these gave me so much happiness as my first week's earnings. I was now a helper of the family, a bread winner” (16). The background exposition on his family became crucial to understanding Carnegie’s drive to succeed. Livesay also fluently demonstrates the various professional relationships Carnegie develops throughout his life and how they affect his career. When his first investment pays a profit of $10, Carnegie discovers a whole new world of earning money from the capital. In 1865, he establishes his own business enterprises and...
Carnegie’s essay contains explanations of three common methods by which wealth is distributed and his own opinions on the effects of each. After reading the entire essay, readers can see his overall appeals to logos; having wealth does not make anyone rich, but using that wealth for the greater good does. He does not force his opinions onto the reader, but is effectively convincing of why his beliefs make sense. Andrew Carnegie’s simple explanations intertwined with small, but powerful appeals to ethos and pathos become incorporated into his overall appeal to logos in his definition of what it means for one to truly be rich.
Leaders such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Ford were all philanthropic and gave away their money to those in need. For instance, Andrew Carnegie had given a total of over $350 million in his lifetime and had centered his philanthropy on education and the quest for world peace. Carnegie built libraries mainly because he wanted to promote self-education and that he wanted everyone to have the access to books. He founded Carnegie University. He had always thought that “The rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes.” John D. Rockefeller donated over $550 million in his lifetime. Rockefeller built the University of Chicago and then founded Rockefeller University. The Rockefeller Foundation was his last charitable foundation and he had such an abundant amount of money that the foundation is still working “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.” J.P. Morgan was an equally giving philanthropist after he retired from banking. He had become the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art while he was also a trustee (lead donor, vice president, treasurer, and finance committee chairman). His love for the natural sciences gave way to the American Museum of Natural History. Morgan was also a part of the Episcopal Church which he had devoted a great deal of time to. Henry Ford
Document M gives us quotes from Andrew Carnegie’s, “Wealth” in the North American Review, June 1889. He states that he wanted more than just the wealthy to prosper: “The man who dies rich is a disgrace.” He was one of those men who would leave their wealth for public use on his deathbed. He never spent too much of his money because he wanted to “set an example of modest... living…; and… to consider all surplus revenues… as trust funds;” he’s a little bit of a hypocrite. Carnegie’s ideas are criticised for the mistakes along the way, but when his ideas came to be, they made big impacts all around the
...failed in his duty to redistribute his surplus wealth to his community, and that the State should heavily tax the remaining estate. This belief that men of wealth were responsible for bridging the widening gap between the well-to-do and those hoping to do well led Carnegie to publish The Gospel of Wealth.
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
A wealthy person, with the desire to do well with their fortune, could benefit society in a number of ways. Carnegie has verbally laid a blueprint for the wealthy to build from. His message is simple: Work hard and you will have results; educate yourself, live a meaningful life, and bestow upon others the magnificent jewels life has to offer. He stresses the importance of doing charity during one’s lifetime, and states “…the man who dies leaving behind him millions of available wealth, which was his to administer during life, will pass away ‘unwept, unhonored, and unsung’…” (401). He is saying a wealthy person, with millions at their disposal, should spend their money on the betterment of society, during their lifetime, because it will benefit us all as a race.
...ve up the fortunes they have built themselves. It is an admirable idea to give your money to help promote a thriving community. Carnegie states that he is against charity and believes that those in need should be taught how to improve their own lives. To fund these institutes and corporations a form of charity must be given. Wealthy citizens give their excess money to a few to disperse of in a way they see fit to help the race. Most Americans are not willing to give up such a large sum of money as noble and respectable of an idea as it is. I think that Carnegie’s plan, in theory, would work and would be best for the race. I do not think it is practical because most would rather spoil their own family with inheritance than give it away to help people unknown to them. Carnegie’s idea of fair is equal opportunities for everyone to help themselves and the race.
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, a Scottish-American steel tycoon and one of the wealthiest men of the nineteenth century, believes that social inequality results as an inexorable byproduct of progress. In his 1889 article entitled “Wealth,” Carnegie claims that it is “essential” for the advancement of the human race that social divisions between the rich and poor exist, which separate those “highest and best in literature and the arts” who embody the “refinements of civilization” from those who do not (105). According to Carnegie, this “great irregularity” is favored over the “universal squalor” that would ensue if class distinctions ceased to exist (105). Carnegie states that it is a “waste of time to criticize the inevitable,” believing that poverty is an inherent characteristic of society rather than the result of elitist oppression (105). Carnegie may conclude that the rich do not necessarily owe the poor anything, but he also believes that wealthy philanthropists such as he should donate their vast accumulations to charity while they are still alive. In Carnegie’s mind, contributions to supporting educational institutions and constructing landmarks serves to