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Comparing Wealth And The Life Of A Coal Miner

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Foremost, "Wealth" written in 1889, by Andrew Carnegie, and “The Life of a Coal Miner” by John McDowell in 1992, both writers have poles apart perspective on social status and on how the economy works; share almost hardly to no comparisons in their philosophy. Carnegie 's views lay on the one base thought that no matter someone’s background they can make success for themselves, while the coal miner essay challenges that by stating “It is an endless routine of dull plodding world from nine years until death—a sort of voluntary life imprisonment. Few escape. Once they begin, they continue to live out their commonplace, low leveled existence, ignoring their daily danger, knowing nothing better.” In the past quote, he explains how the poor are always …show more content…

Carnegie immigrated at age thirteen from Scotland and worked his way up by developing the telegram system during the civil, there collecting his first million then dominated the steel industry; thereafter prospering his enterprise, which leads him to be the second richest man after Rockefeller. “The American Dream”, envisioned by our Founding Fathers, is a revolutionary idea that any citizen has an equal opportunity to prosper by challenging themselves and through an initiative, and determination. This gives” Wealth” much more of an impact thus, many Americans consider ‘The American Dream” as a standard and praise this idealism. Even if his views seem a bit outdated; it stills heavily impacted lots of Americans from the Gilded Age to modern day. However, for all that prosperity, the gap between rich and poor has always been a huge complication, for over a century, people have tried to fix this inequality. Andrew Carnegie was one of the first to propose a solution, his philosophy influenced many American millionaires ever since, including people like Bill

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Andrew Carnegie, a late 19th century steel magnate, was immensely successful during the Gilded Age. He kept wages low while eliminating competition, so that workers had no choice but to stay in Carnegie’s company. The Gilded Age is so called because the top appeared to be gold (i.e. the richest people were doing extremely well) but on the inside there were insurmountable wealth inequalities (I.e the rich succeeded at the expense of the rest of the nation). Andrew Carnegie was a large causer of wealth inequality . In his “Gospel of Wealth” he justifies the trend by stating that in an ideal world the rich would give to the poor, but unfortunately our world is impossible.

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After the Civil War, the Second Industrial Revolution was established due to America’s rapid growth for industry and economics. Capitalists during the industrial period of 1875-1900’s were either accused of being a robber baron or a captain of industry. Some capitalists leaders who were accused of being a robber baron or captain of industry included J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller. A robber baron is a business leader who gets rich through cruel and scandalous business practices. The captains of industry is a business leader who wants to better the companies in a way that it would be positively contributing to the country.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

At the end of the 19th Century, as the United States was experiencing rapid industrialization, a reconfiguration of the social order yielded opposing visions of social progress. Andrew Carnegie, wealthy businessman, and Jane Addams, founder of Chicago’s Hull House, put forward different methods to achieve such progress, where Addams focuses on creating social capital in a seemingly horizontal manner while Carnegie advocates for a top-down approach. While both of them seem to reap a sense of purpose from their attempts to improve the nation, their approaches vary depending on their vision of the composition of the population they want to uplift. First, Carnegie and Addams’ desire to improve society is partly self-serving. For Carnegie, improving society is the role of the wealthy man who, “animated by Christ’s spirit” (“Wealth”), can administer wealth for the community better than it could have for itself (“Wealth”).

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John Jacob Astor Amassing a fortune through ingenuity and the leveraging of taboo businesses By Juan Acevedo The realization of the “American Dream” is often believed to be the result of core values such as honesty and hard work, but that was not the case with the first self-made United States mulit-millionaire. Although John Jacob Astor was familiar with the principles of hard work and honest earnings, he rejected a traditional path and built his wealth by capitalizing on a series of new opportunities. He anticipated societal needs, growing markets, and achieved the American dream through sanctioned and questionable business dealings.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish was an immigrant who grew up poor who later became symbolic and widely known as the "American Dream" and one of the richest men in the country. Andrew started very young making money. Provided he had very little formal education, Carnegie grew up in a family that believed in the importance of knowledge, learning and reading books. Carnegie made his living and became so wealthy by being a Industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur and major philanthropist. His main source that lead to his wealth was his successful Carnegie Steel Company, which in the 1890's was the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world.

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There had to be a way to keep the industry growing, with the needs for education, as well as materials for farming and for the use of new inventions in technology. The captains of industry were very capable in providing for these needs. In Document C, Wealth, Andrew Carnegie describes what the man of wealth was responsible for: “To produce the most beneficial results for the community- 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 conditions of the lower class at the time gave these men a leading role for priorities, which they were successful with.

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Underpinnings and Effectiveness of Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth” In Andrew Carnegie’s “Gospel of Wealth”, Carnegie proposed a system of which he thought was best to dispose of “surplus wealth” through progress of the nation. Carnegie wanted to create opportunities for people “lift themselves up” rather than directly give money to these people. This was because he considered that giving money to these people would be “improper spending”.

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The controversy is about overcoming inequality verves the rise of inequality, also the inequality of education resulting in noble prizes and immigrant entrepreneurs. In America, there can be different views of inequality. In the article, “The upside of income inequality” – Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy. They

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One of the many Gospel of Wealth advocates was Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, who was an industrialist who emigrated from Scotland to American in 1848 (Wall, ANBO). Carnegie’s “Wealth” written in 1889

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Throughout history, wealth was kept within the family, totally opposite of what we see and expect from most successful business people of today. To bolster the notion that these industrial pioneers were not solely in it for themselves, men like Rockefeller gave millions in charitable donations. Carnegie even wrote a book about how to effectively spread money to the commonwealth as well as teaching the lower classes how to provide for themselves. In fact, Carnegie’s book was given to Bill Gates, a man known for his charitable contributions. As if these Statesmen’s giving nature were not enough, their impact on the world war was extraordinary; without them, America would have been left in the dust.

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835 Words | 4 Pages

He believed that if the wealthy don't give back some of their profits to the community, they are living a dishonorable life, and although I didn't necessarily agree with this radical viewpoint at first, I now am a firm believer in Carnegie's argument about wealth.

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1411 Words | 6 Pages

The riches that some American experiences is just one sided story, as much as the rich people enjoy their day to day life, the less unfortunate people suffered twice as much. Living in unsanitary, cramped places and worked in harmful environment just to be able to provide meals for their family. The contrasting lives of the two is just calamitous. Jacob Riis, a New York City journalist published, How the Other Half Lives (1890), “…vividly described the squalor he saw, he documented it with photography, giving readers an unflinching view of urban poverty” (The American Yawp, Ch.20-2). Showing them the lives of how the less unfortunate people lives and the poor conditions they lived in.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

1984 Synthesis Essay Poverty negatively influences how the minds of people work in the world. The fact that poverty exists itself, obstructs people from changing their circumstances in what is known as “the cycle of poverty.” The lower class is incredibly disadvantaged in that it lacks the necessary social and economic resources needed to increase chances of social mobility. In return, the absence of these resources may increase poverty. Therefore, the lower class is unable to change its situation because the majority believes that any efforts to climb the social ladder is highly inefficient.

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576 Words | 3 Pages

Andrew Carnegie makes it clear that people in society with wealth should help those who deserve the financial help. If those in need of help put in their effort, then why shouldn’t they be helped by those who don’t need it? In the Life of the Average Coal Miner, the harsh conditions that children faced is revealed. Children would work for hours in a crucial and dangerous environment and be rewarded with very little money that did not equal to the amount of work they put in. It is unfair to those who worked in the conditions in the Life of the Average Coal Miner.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

For instance, Carnegie presented his library named Carnegie Library, he considers this “the best kind of philanthropy” (Ernsberger). By this he indicates the correct way a wealthy individual should live,is by giving back to the community. On the contrary, Richard argues this as negative affect to the company due to the loss of income. Richard believes that Carnegie shouldn’t have spent his money on helping the community instead, he should have continued to invest it on the steel industry. Overall, Richard views Carnegie as “little capitalist who urged presidents to do right things in Philippines, Panama and international diplomacy [but] had never done the right or moral thing as a businessman,” (Ernsberger).

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