Andrew Carnegie: Should We Help The Homeless?

People who are homeless encounter much ridicule in our society’s. The stigma homelessness carries have in some ways devastated the dignity of so many of whom have fallen victim. One might think that the homeless had been involved in some misdeeds that ended them up on the streets or assumed that laziness is the culprit and have resolved to panhandling. We attempt to justify our responses by rehearsing why our need is greater or suppose that whatever means given would not be used for purposes intended and so we talk ourselves into or out of meeting the needs of others. With this in mind, we dare not consider the circumstances that consequently leaves some individuals or families destitute. For instance, an individual might have struggled

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. The most accurate characterization for the time period of 1875-1900’s were both

Andrew Carnegie was the father of industrialized steel in the 19th century and owned the affluent Carnegie Steel Company. He quickly expanded steel’s production, became one of the wealthiest men in the world, and thereafter became a striving philanthropist. The pinnacle of Andrew Carnegie’s life was in the midst of the Gilded Age, an era of economic growth that included an underlying societal corruption. During this time, penniless laborers became upset with the unfair way that wealthy industrialists treated them and began to strike against these colossal companies. In 1889, at the peak of his accumulation of wealth, Andrew Carnegie wrote a famous essay titled “Wealth” that described the gap between the rich and the poor. In his justification of wealth, Andrew Carnegie argues that the rich men in the world are vital to society and must use their wealth responsibly in order to ameliorate the lives of the poor.

The current government is creating a situation where more families along with their children are experiencing homelessness. An individual may be considered homeless when they lack permanent housing and have to stay in shelters, abandoned buildings or vehicles, on the streets, or in other forms of unstable situations. Many homeless people start out with jobs and stable residences, but then social and economic factors intervene, causing a rapid change in their living situation causing them to leave, and live on the street. Even with the population of homeless keeps increasing, the government does not aid nor benefit the homeless because they only worsen the homeless problem by having laws that go against homelessness, not helping mentally ill homeless population, and having the lack of subsidized housing.

Carnegie thinks it is better to build public institutions than give charity to the poor because the poor need to have the “desire to improve” and find help in these public institutions. (Carnegie 30). He believes that rather wealthy “Men who continue hoarding great sums all their lives” can find the proper use for their money, which is to help the community. (Carnegie 29). By just giving money to the poor the wealthy are doing all their work and instead the poor should find the assistance they need to improve their lives. By building public institutions the poor have better chances of finding assistance and the recourses the need to better their life in the long run. For example if you give a poor man 100 dollars he is going to waste that money

Carnegie intended for his publication the “Gospel of Wealth” to appeal to the well-educated entrepreneurs, men of big business, and the wealthy. He wanted to offer advice to those who were wealthier than most to use the “Gospel of Wealth” as a guide to distributing ones wealth in a productive and beneficial way that would help make society better. During this time period the majority of most cities populations were made up of the poor working class compared to the amount of wealthy individuals (Olivier, S2: Supplementary

Homelessness, while widely acknowledged, continues to be an ever-prevalent issue within society. This urged me to take action. In order to compromise an accurate, precise claim, I needed to heavily research and analyze the various aspects of this issue -- specifically regarding the causes of homelessness, addressing the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding it, and by finding solutions at a personal, local, and national level. Initially, I intended to include pathos as a primary theme throughout my sources, but I eventually found logos as a more prevalent, more central theme that appeared throughout each source. Presented primarily through statistics, logos stands as the central theme.

The duty of the wealthy is to set an example of modesty among the wealthy, to provide for the needs of those that depend on him and to lend money to his fellow man to give back to the community. The man of wealths duties as carnegie explained in paragraph nine is to “provide the poor a trustee and a sole agent that provides them with wisdom experience and doing for them better than they would do or could do for themselves.” ( Carnegie, paragraph nine). THis system would give the wealthy many responsibilities, but Carnegie believed it was their duty to help others when they were unable to help

The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S. An effective way to address the problem of homelessness in America is to continue creating affordable housing, maintaining assistance programs, and continue creating workforce

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. This phrase is sung with pride and passion by American citizens. However, some of America’s hardest working citizens are shackled down by a factor that they have no control over. Poverty, is what’s keeping citizens imprisoned while they should be living free. An appalling 44 percent of homeless Americans are employed (http://nationalhomeless.org/). Why should people who go to work and hold a job be subjected to homelessness in the greatest country in the world? Many other middle-class Americans are too shielded by their almost perfect lives to even see this. Many of them even have the audacity to say that homeless individuals or the lower-class is just lazy. Barbara Ehrenreich directly

It is a large complex ongoing societal problem throughout communities that no one can stop. All societies have homeless people and, on the contrary, all have rich people; It is just how a society works. In my eyes, the richer of society are much more appreciated than the homeless. Because the people with money can afford to pay for housing, living, and nice things, society favors them and pushes aside the homeless. I do believe that if society took more notice of homeless people the situation could change. Communities should develop plans to help these people in need and give them a place to stay instead of living on the streets. Society has failed to support these people in need because of the primary focus being on the more fortunate who can give back to the society. I say that the homeless should be prioritized over the wealthy because they are more in need than they are. This being said, we can never blame the individual for what society has put them through. I do believe that if society gives homeless people a second chance they deserve they could strive to make their lives better with our help. My saying in life is “it is what it is” and it is sad to think that in this situation, the homeless get the worse end of the

Carnegie states that the problem with the administration of wealth is that it tears apart the rich and the poor in society, because the rich keep all their wealth to themselves; he says “…so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship.” The law of competition, is that where no business man lets another man be more successful in their field, he states “…but the advantages of this law are also greater still, for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train.” “While the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race,…” There are three modes of surplus wealth disposal: Left to the families of the descendants, bequeathed for public purposes, and administered during their lives by its possessors. Carnegie claims that the ‘Duty of the Man of Wealth’ is the third mode of surplus disposal. The ‘Gospel of Wealth’ is “…obedience to which is destined some day to solve the problem of the Rich and the Poor, and to bring ‘”Peace on earth, among men Good-Will.’”

The response to poverty in the Gilded Age was the rich and the poor not being able to come to an agreement in response to those who can hardly make ends meet. Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men during the Gilded Age. Carnegie was not the best man to work for because he was against labor unions and approved using violence against his own employees. In “Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth” It talks about how the rich and the poor could come together if they had the “proper administration of wealth.” Carnegie thought it was better to build institutions instead of give to the poor because the strength of the mind and body will benefit the community while solving the problem between the rich and the poor. Carnegie believed the “the

It is hard to imagine life as a homeless family. I hope that I’ll never have to move my family from shelter to shelter as some families must do every day. According to the essay “Homeless” by Anna Quindlen, we should take more time in our lives to see the pain that homelessness creates. I agree with Anna Quindlen’s assertion that a home is everything. A home can provide certainty. A home can provide stability. Lastly, I agree with Quindlen because a home can provide privacy.