Gospel Of Wealth Analysis

The Gilded Age was a great time for social change and economic growth. Between reconstruction and the dawn of the new century, the Gilded Age saw rapid industrialization, urbanized, railroads, technology, and the rise of big businesses. The nations were split into two halves that hated each other and nobody had enough money. The last three decades of the 19th century is called the Gilded Age which is one of the most dynamic periods in american history. During the Gilded Age america’s industry economy exploded generating opportunities for individuals but also leaving many farmers and workers struggling. Industrial leaders such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller revolutionized business and ushered in the modern corporate economy, but

Social Darwinism is when only the strongest survive, during the Gilded Age this was true. Many businessmen during the time period were people who had a vision and invested time and effort to grow the economy they did what they had to do to make their company survive the economy. Some people's business did not survive because the bigger corporations took them out of business, the business that did not survive are were weak and were not strong enough to survive. It is not the bigger business fault it did not survive, the business did not survive because it could not compete with the competition. Social Darwinism is huge reason why the great industrialist are Captains of Industry.

Henry George’s was a critic of big business and since there we social problems he blames it on a few monopolists to grow wealthy as a result of rising land values. He proposed a single tax on land to replace taxes which would be returned to in addition to the people. If they propose this tax it would destroy monopolies, distribute wealth, and it would eliminate poverty. Robber barons are the reason why people were being driven into poverty (DOC 1). The result of this was how the Northern capitalists led the South away from agriculture and economic dependence, and how they used their wealth to further grow the American industry. The captains of industry believed that the poor people were inferior to the rich people. The rich were superior because they had “wisdom, experience, and the ability to administer”. The duty of a rich person was to help out a poor person which was what was said in the Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth is about how the rich person's responsibility is philanthropy. Carnegie believes in charity work so he would donate to libraries, and universities and schools and etc. Part of a captain of industries duty were to make sure that whatever he does whether it is “trust funds in which he administered”, it would have to benefit the community (DOC 2). Andrew Carnegie believed in Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is the belief of the “survival of the fittest.” You are rich because God is rewarding and you are poor because you aren’t working hard

Thesis : After the Civil War, America was in a post-war boom. During the 1870-1890, big business moguls, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, create huge corporations which not only affected the economy, but also affected the political realm of America. While many may assume that during the rise of these big business helped to change the economy and politics,  the real focus was on the responses formed by society, such as labor unions, increase public outcry, and political opposition groups that helped to change society.

In the past, there have been many influential economic figures in the industrial business industry. Andrew Carnegie is one of the most famous of these figures but not just in a business scheme, but also in an economic and national scheme. Andrew Carnegie is a business man that caused a major controversial issue to arise; the topic of being labeled a Robber Baron or a Captain of Industry by the public. A Robber Baron is someone who has become wealthy through heartless and unethical business actions that will only benefit the individual. On the other hand, a Captain of Industry is a business leader who has become rich by accomplishing activities that will, overall, benefit the people of the community such as expanding a market or providing more jobs. There have been many debates on which one

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

To start, John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest capitalists in history, used the term Social Darwinism to say why some people were poor and some were rich. This ideal is exemplified in Ghent’s Our Benevolent Feudalism, (Doc. 7), which explains why the principle of “Survival of the fittest” applies to laissez-faire capitalism. Essentially, it said that if someone was not successful, it was a result of not working hard enough. Consequently, many rich Americans believed in this view, and used it as an explanation of why some are poor and some are rich. Additionally, a similar view is expressed in Progress & Poverty, written by J.M Dent. (Doc. 11). In Progress & Poverty, Dent explains that an uneven distribution of wealth will aid social progress, because it will drive people to work harder, which in almost all cases, never worked, and only caused social unrest and strikes. Conversely, some politicians fought for workers’ rights and developed legislation in response. To illustrate, in 1890, John Sherman passed a bill known as the “Sherman Antitrust Act,” which attempted to counter the growing number of trusts and monopolies in the country (Doc. 4). Although the Antitrust Act failed to stop any trusts, the act did help pave the way for legislation in the early 1900’s that would help workers and workers’ rights. In conclusion,

Andrew Carnegie was a “robber baron” as shown in the way he acted towards the people who helped him reach the top and the terrible working environment that he subjected his workers to. He did various things in an attempt at overshadowing the awful things he did and positively alter his public image. His mentor, Thomas Scott, taught him the skills he would use to become the undisputed king of steel. Costs were the most important aspect of any business and reducing those required cutting wages, demanding 13 hour days and utilizing spies as a way to thwart possible strikes. Many years after Carnegie had gone out on his own, Scott met with him thinking that the years they spent together and all he had taught him would unquestionably result in help in his time of trouble.

Social Darwinism is based on Charles Darwin’s natural evolution theory. Charles Darwin’s theory stated that only the fittest of the fit and those that could adapt would survive. Those that did not adapt would die out. Social Gospel was a Protestant Christian movement in the 19th and 20th centuries. In Social Darwinism, a person’s wealth, social status, and property showed their fitness. Poor people were considered lazy and fell under wealthy people and were seen as weak, or not fit to survive. Social Gospel covered excess urbanization and industrialization. Christian people helped workers and poor people and favored them over wealthy people. Social Darwinism favored the wealthy. Social Darwinism appealed to Protestant work ethic and supported laissez-faire policies. In Social Darwinism, is was thought that everyone could “prosper with hard work, intelligence, and perseverance.” Social Darwinism was used by men like, Andrew Carnegie. They used it to support their practices. Social Gospel was used by people like Jane Addams and Theodore Roosevelt.

As once written by Andrew Carnegie, “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (Carnegie) Homelessness has been around for centuries, just like the debate over Americans helping the homeless or letting them fend for themselves. There are many aspects must which should be considered in the argument of whether we, the American people and higher class, should help them or not; such as the ethical values of the situation from both the poor and those involved in helping, the cultural and social causes, and effects on their lives.

The late nineteenth century was a pivotal moment in American history. During this time, the Industrial Revolution transformed the nation, railroads had dissipated all throughout the country, and economic classes began to form, separating the wealthy from the poor. One of the wealthiest men of this generation was Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who fled to America to make millions off the railroad, oil and even steel businesses. Carnegie is considered one of the richest men in history, and even with all that wealth he decided to give back to the community. As a matter of fact, Carnegie donated most of his funds to charities, universities and libraries in his last few years. 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.

The end of the reconstruction era gave rise to the gilded age. The gilded age was a time of economic growth. It was the second industrial revolution, urbanization, immigration and political/economic corruption. The congress and the big business were more influential than the presidency. The term ‘Gilded Age’ was termed by Mark Twain who described the wealthy who were covered in a ‘layer of gold’, a superficial layer can be peeled and reveals unpleasant things. The period from 1870 to 1900, big businesses governed by Robber Barons sprung up and took control of the economy and the political system that governed the American People. The American people responded by forming labor unions and tried to improve the plight of the poor.

William Graham Sumner had a great influence on Social Darwinism in the nineteenth century. Sumner was a Sociology professor at Yale University, who adopted the idea of Social Darwinism because of his belief in the survival of the fittest. Even though he did not fully commit to Social Darwinism, he did promote the idea of the constant struggle against nature. He explains that in order for survival, one needs to struggle and compete with nature to provide our basic human needs of food and water. During the Gilded Age, businessmen and the middle class men supported the theory of Social Darwinism which was first introduced by the pioneers of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Sumner followed the idea that the one who attains more than the other is unequal and superior to the poor. A rhetorical analysis of Sumner’s writing is essential to make a counterargument against Social Darwinism. In order to successfully persuade an audience, you first need to understand the meaning

Fundamentally, idolatry is the worship of an image or object or the excessive devotion towards a person or item. From a religious perspective, idolatry is the worship of images and representations other than the true God. Idolatry is a practice whose scope is often misunderstood, prompting the efforts by different people to demystify the practice both in the past and in the world today. Martin Luther, for instance, explores his understanding of the practice in his Large Catechism, a text meant to guide Lutheran clergymen in their service. This essay discusses idolatry, with specific emphasis on Luther’s ideas and presentation of the same and its prevalence in the modern world.

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”. Through Social Darwinism, he hoped to dispose of the problems of: the Darwinian intellectual revolution, Eugenies, and the hierarchy of race. However his system was inherently flawed because Carnegie built this system on racism and warmongering. This system was built to rationalize why the fittest class, or the white Anglo-saxon men, were always on top.