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Aspect of business ethics
Aspect of business ethics
Ethics in business environment
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Aspect of business ethics
Aspect of business ethics
Ethics in business environment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
George McNeil and Andrew Carnegie were very opinionated people. According to George McNeil a railroad president was exactly like a king, sultan, and shah. The president had the power to control wages and the hours of the workers. President also had power over the courts and the laws. A true president has a body of people under him regulation their power.
Arguably one of the most pivotal points in American history, the industrialization of the 19th century brought about a new way of life, and with that came intense competition and crucial outcomes. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller are just a few examples of industrialists that made lasting impacts on society. I believe that these 19th century industrialists did not always play fair, but it was their motivation and intuition behind their choices that credit them as the “Captains of Industry” and helped shape American business. To earn this title, these men had to do whatever it took to stay on top. Being the front runners, they were constantly being targeted and had to fight back to ensure the prosper of their own
As industry began to grow in America, a select group of pioneers such as Andrew Carnegie became controversial. The controversy was that they were simply rich and took from the poor. People who participated in such acts were referred to as “Robber Barons”. It is often said that Andrew Carnegie was a “Robber Baron” but he was not because in his case, he was one of the first people to bring industry to such a large scale. Without people before him, he had no guidance and therefore it was much harder to conduct business because he was essentially creating his own path.
One of industrialists main focus was maximizing profit, so consequently, industrialists put a workers’ welfare disregard. For example, Andrew Carnegie neglected
Beginning as a poor immigrant, Carnegie wanted to support the lower and uneducated class: he knew how it felt to have an ambiguous and undetermined future. In "The Gospel of Wealth" Carnegie said,
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”).
Labor leaders such as George E. McNeill treated the railroad president as “a railroad king.” (Doc B) Similarly, Andrew Carnegie established vertical integration in steel industries, and John Rockefeller accomplished both vertical and horizontal integration with his Standard Oil Trust. These businesses created a Victorian morality, further distancing the upper class from the working class. A firm believer in Social Darwinism, Carnegie directly addressed the widening wealth gap in his Gospel of Wealth. He promoted the use of philanthropy
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.
This caused unrest among the populace (Brinkley 477). In contrast, the wealthy viewed industrialization very positively (Brinkley 472-473). Andrew Carnegie, one of these millionaires, had a singular view on wealth, and his philosophy both stemmed from and influenced his actions during his life. Carnegie’s view of rampant capitalism and the class separation it caused was radically different from most the population.
This allowed the businessmen to increase the price of their product because there wasn't any competition. This was a problem because without competition all people are forced to by the product from one company no matter the price because there wasn't any where else they could get it. Not only did these crooked businessmen swindle their workers and rig the market they also claimed to help the community. These businessmen “attempted to help the community by creating opportunities for people to move forward in life”. This can be seen through the libraries Andrew Carnegie built.
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”.
Carnegie’s views on the treatment of his workers are one of the things that he did that are considered unethical. For instance, during America’s depression in the early 1800’s, Carnegie’s workers were repeatedly asked to work long hours for little play; many unions resisted, particularly in the Homestead Strike of 1892. In the Homestead Strike, workers were angry about pay cuts and Carnegie’s
Italy Gonzalez Hist-1302-NC3 Essay #1 Andrew Carnegie ’s upbringing greatly influences his belief in individualism, which justifies his views on how he was fit to grow economically, why differences played a key role on why others could or should not. Carnegie philosophy called for the rich to give back to the community and hard work that moves and individual forward. A miner‘s life demonstrates him progressing to a slightly higher income job that will remain in a stagnant cycle that deprives him of wealth. The miner sustains requirements and conditions that are as dangerous as they are unjust.
In the late 1800’s, J.P Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Andrew Carnegie had a negative impact on society because they were Robber Barons. They treated their workers very poorly in a way that should not have happened. J.P Morgan forced his workers to labor under harsh conditions for long hours and low pay. This is coming from a guy who has made millions of dollars and who has started a 60 million dollar business. Knowing how much money he has and how very little he pays his workers shows how ruthless he is as a business owner.
So in document 4, Andrew Carnegie is a positive impact of helping the poor but still he was one of the many big industrial owners that took part of the wrongdoings of industrialization by paying low wages and refusing to directly help the poor workers. And so this indeed did bought negative effects to the U.S socially and economically due to Social Darwinism. The Author's purpose in writing this is to show the inequality distribution of wealth to society and shown by Andrew Carnegie's method of helping the poor but also in the greed of