Summary Of Gospel Of Wealth By Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie: Bettering the Community

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American businessman who became extremely rich through the steel industry. After gaining a lot of money, he became a philanthropist who donated his money to the making of libraries in the United States. Being a rich businessman, Carnegie writes that it is important to dispose of one’s wealth in a matter that the community can benefit from it. The way in which he comes to this conclusion and rules out the two other possibilities will be further discussed.

Carnegie addresses people in this same status of living as himself, for that reason wealthy people who have become rich by themselves. This section from the essay, Gospel of Wealth is meant as a guide to those that have

In his time, there is a clear difference between those that are rich and the those that are not based on dress, living conditions and the things they eat amongst other things. He concludes that this change is good and that this has brought about civilization and that both the chief and tenants are better suited.

Being well suited has come with the responsibility of giving away the large sum of money the rich have acquired. Carnegie proposes three ways which an individual can spread his wealth. One is old way which is passing the wealth on to your oldest son. Carnegie disapproves of this route because he feels that the recipients have no appreciation for the wealth and therefore just spend it with disregard. He feels that rather than passing on the entire sum to succeeding generations, the daughters and wife should receive very “moderate sources of income” while the son should make his own

In his closing argument where he writes that the poor will be unable to attain such profits themselves is misguided in my opinion. Carnegie himself rose to his status through working hard and without the help of others. He was immigrant and also from a family who had made money through weaving. How can he then not have faith in the American dream? Or just simply belief that if an individual worked hard, they could attain a large sum of money. In addition, his writing is biased mainly because he sees his class as being the sole givers. His essay is meant to persuade those in his class to improve the living condition of the less fortunate and better the community. On the other hand, his attitude towards giving large sum of money to family members who will only waste the money rather than using it for greater purposes is agreeable. All in all, his purpose of this essay is for greater purpose and has allowed less fortunate people or the community to benefit from his wealth because education is the best way to improve the community. By establishing libraries or educational buildings, Carnegie stayed true to his philosophy and has bettered the