The Gospel Of Wealth, By Andrew Carnegie

After reading “The Gospel of Wealth” by Andrew Carnegie it is clear that Carnegie feels that wealthy people have a duty and purpose to provide for their community and help those less fortunate than them, however he also believes there are very specific ways this should be accomplished. Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men in U.S history. He was dedicated to the steel industry but at 65 he changed his life around completely and decided to devote the rest of his life to helping other people. He donated 5 million dollars to the New York public library and did many other things to help people with their education. He encourages people to follow his example in his piece “The Gospel of Wealth” and explains that the goal of the wealthy should be

to die with as little money as possible because of all the help you could provide to others. For example he says, “By taxing estates heavily at death the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire’s unworthy life.” Basically, rich people should be taxed more heavily the more money they leave behind as a sort of punishment for not putting the money to good use. He also adds that the wealthy should not simply give small amounts of money to many different peoples who would end up just using it on pointless things. Instead he emphasizes that the only way to use great fortunes is to give a large amount of money for public places which the masses can reap real benefits from like a library or school. This way the people that want help and want to succeed have the tools to do so. “In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves.”
Throughout the entire piece, Carnegie uses very strong language. It is evident that he truly believes what he is saying and that this is the only way that a rich person can rightfully act.
Before introducing his points he even says, “There remains, then, only one mode of using great fortunes.” Another example of this is in the very title. Carnegie doesn’t say “The way to use wealth” or “The distribution of wealth”, he calls this “The Gospel of Wealth”. This is a very strong statement to make. The Gospel in the church holds the teaching of Christ and the definition of Gospel is something regarded as true and implicitly believed. Therefore Carnegie is not only claiming to be right he is claiming that his argument is simply fact and understood by everyone.
Personally, I agree with some of his claims but not others.

I agree that as someone wealthier it is a good act to use the money you don’t need and really work to benefit your community is a big way. I also agree that it is better to really commit yourself to these acts during your lifetime rather than simply leaving money after you die to charity simply because you “can’t take it with you”. However I do not believe that it is a wealthy person’s duty to do so and I do not agree with the condescending tone used by Carnegie to discuss poorer people. Carnegie claims that it is the duty of the rich to “consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is so called upon to administer, and strictly bond as a matter of duty to administer in the manner which is best calculated to produce the most beneficial results for the community.” While it is nice for a wealthy person to want to donate money to help others, they have also worked very hard, in many cases, for the money they now have. I do not agree with the fact that any extra money needs to be used to help others and that leaving money for next generations or anything like that is looked down upon. Carnegie also says, “the man of wealth thus becoming the mere agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to service his superior wisdom,, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than they would for for themselves.” I do not at all agree with the way Carnegie describes the poor in this quote. First of all, just because someone does not have as much money, it does not mean they are not educated and it certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t work as hard or aren’t as capable as the wealthy man. Using the word superior to talk about the wealthy man versus the poorer man is very condescending and it makes it seem like because of the difference in income, the wealthy man is better and above the poorer man. This is an unfair and incorrect judgement to

make.