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Gospel Of Wealth Essay

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Recommended: Income and wealth inequality

The issue surrounding the wealthy class and their abundance of money is one that has been prominent for a long time. For many, the seemingly endless fortune these elite class people sit on has been deemed to be unfair and unnecessary, especially when there are people around the world who are not making enough money to obtain basic necessities. Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics, believes that the solution to this monetary problem is for the wealthy to simply donate money they don’t use on basic necessities back to the people in need. Although giving back to the less fortunate could potentially help in fixing many problems, prosperous people should not be obligated to donate money they “don’t need” to various organizations because since …show more content…

A monopoly man that was previously referenced, by the name of Andrew Carnegie, was seen in the economic aspect of the United States during 1877 to 1896 as an extremely wealthy man who dominated the steel industry. But more than that, he was a man who believed in giving back to the less fortunate, and he was known for his philanthropy throughout his life. His book, The Gospel of Wealth, emphasized the importance of wealthy people, like himself, to give back their money diligently to the community and reinvest in the society around them. This was not only a viewpoint he preached, but also one that he followed, which could be seen by his numerous contributions to American society, more specifically education. Carnegie helped in creating new schools, colleges, and other institutions primarily focused around education and making it easily accessible for all people, no matter their socioeconomic status. His desire to give back his earnings to American society was one that wasn’t forced on him by the people around him, but it was one that was instilled in him because of his personal beliefs and motives. Carnegie's desire to make education more accessible and develop the poorer sectors of the United States was a huge factor in his actions. A majority of his “extra” money was given back to the community and that is what made him such an influential philanthropist and an overall important figure in American history. If the people in society urged Carnegie to donate to various causes, this could have changed his perspective on the developing economic problem in society and possibly could have caused him to become not as dedicated to donating as he usually was. The values and actions of Carnegie

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1191 Words | 5 Pages

Carnegie could have discussed the reservations the poor had about the ability of some to become rich through industrialization and how they felt about his Gospel of Wealth. Did the poor really want money from the rich, who had control of many forces throughout the nation? Carnegie fails to provide a bias opinion on the divide between the rich and the poor because he is no longer poor. He expresses the faults in the wealthy hoarding their money for themselves, but continues to believe the wealthy should exist. The classifications of rich and poor also goes against Carnegie’s belief that the American society was changing into something new, when in reality they were adopting some of the old colonial ways like

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Was Andrew Carnegie A Hero Or A Villain

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The distribution of wealth has always been a conflict of interest between those in an industrial society. Many times, we find the all the poor being grouped as oppressed, and all the rich being grouped as oppressive. But this is not the most accurate way of thinking. We see Andrew Carnegie as part of the rich being grouped as oppressive, or a villain. Given the fact that he saw his success in the height of the American Era of Industrialization, Carnegie got a lot of backlash for the issues surrounding the poor that worked for him.

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I agree with Andrew Carnegie’s decision to donate and invest his accumulated wealth in the public because it is the most useful and beneficial way to spend his wealth. Moreover, I believe that distributing the money to relatives or keeping the money to oneself does not sufficiently utilize the money. By donating and investing in the public, a majority of the money can be spent on necessities for the general public, rather than spending the money on a single person. In other words, Andrew Carnegie’s decision to donate and invest in the general public benefits significantly more people than it would if he were to give it to relatives or keep it to himself. Furthermore, I believe that withholding the money to oneself is unrightful in the sense

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Andrew Carnegie Dbq

780 Words | 4 Pages

In document C, we see a partial list of his transactions with charities, including; the Teachers’ Pension Fund, the Homestead Relief Fund, the Carnegie Institution, and public libraries. The things these donations did were very helpful to many, helping professors get old age help, funding steel workers and their families, promoting scientific research, and helping to create over 2,811 public libraries. He also created the Carnegie Corporation, which was a supertrust made to continue giving out Carnegie’s fortune after his death, primarily to education. This shows that he used his finances to give back to communities, which he could only do because of his financial

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Andrew Carnegie's Influence Made America Rich

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Carnegie “had distributed $350 million, but had $30 million left, which went into the Corporation’s endowment” (Carnegie Corporation of New York) to give back to communities in need. The corporation has empowered communities ever since. Communities have been empowered by “Carnegie's wealth establishing numerous colleges, schools, nonprofit organizations and associations” (Carnegie Corporation of New York) has empowered Americans tremendously. Nonetheless, America would not have taken off economically without wealthy individuals like Carnegie. To sum up, everything that has been stated so far, Andrew Carnegie used his wealth to help America in the late 1800s for the greater good.

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Why Was Andrew Carnegie Not A Hero?

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(Document 3) Andrew Carnegie was obsessed with his money and focused on keeping that money from dropping. He made many great purchases and donations, but could not even help his workers. His worker's wages were not only low, but their suffering was high. Andrew Carnegie was blinded by his riches, is a selfish man, and is truly a cruel fanatic for

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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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To publicly attack Carnegie’s philanthropy is uncalled for and I think it just proves how well he has done in providing his service. Thinking about it, 2000 public libraries probably inadvertently caused more good than harm done at the homestead lockout. Just as he has harmed, he doubled that in his good deeds. Carnegie's philanthropy was good for the economy because it helped students get a great education which helped the schools. These students who ended up becoming successful would also help the economy.

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Carnegie believed in laissez-faire capitalism, but if the law ensured the survival of the fittest, then let the government's laws interfere (Doc 2). In addition, Carnegie argued that it was shameful for the wealthy to utilize their wealth to advance society while they were still alive, as opposed to the widespread practice of leaving all of one's wealth to one's successors. He believed that the duty of wealth should be used to set examples of modest living and produce beneficial results for the community. (Doc

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His philanthropies went towards things like libraries and donating instruments to help with education for the public. Giving away his wealth to help others better themselves, was a high priority for him. He contributed to the development of churches, libraries, and universities to help those who were working towards something. This may have been a result of the difficult childhood he had and the struggle he faced when trying to improve his life. Both this and Social Darwinism had a part in changing Carnegie’s view of himself from the son in a poverty-stricken family, into someone who took advantage when opportunities were presented and created an exceptional life for himself.

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Money: the root of most social problems and one of the few matters that almost everyone has an opinion on. Peter Singer’s “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” a newspaper article, is no exception. Singer argues that one should donate all unnecessary money to the less fortunate because of the morality of the situation. However, though the goal is noble, his commentary is very ineffective due to its condescending tone, lack of hard facts, and overall extremism. The piece is written by Peter Singer, an Australian professor of bioethics at Princeton University.

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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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If dispersed into the hands of the poor, the money might have been used for food or other necessities which helps out the person who spent the money to get those good or services, but it fails to have an influence on the race as a whole. The way money is spent is a capitalist environment is also able to be pictured through the sentence, “It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unwealthy” (16). Through Carnegie’s perspective, if the money from the wealthy were not able to go to a good cause for the entire race to benefit off of, it would be better that the money is thrown away or not used at all rather than being a handout given to the less fortunate. If the poor and drunken part of the community wishes to spend money on things that they need or believe that are a necessity, even if they are not, those people must work for their money instead of using the money that was given to them from the

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He believed that wealthy people were morally obligated to give their money back to others in society. If money was left for public benefit after death, there was no guarantee that it would be administered well by others. Therefore, Carnegie argued rich men should give their wealth for public good while still alive. “Of every thousand dollars spent in so-called charity to-day, it is probable that $950 is unwisely spent” (2) Carnegie argues that billionaires must give away their fortunes. He just thinks they must administer the money themselves because non-billionaires don't know how to handle it and will waste the

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