Was Andrew Carnegie A Hero Dbq

Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Gomper have different takes when it comes to the role that wealthy people should have in society. The two authors have opposed feelings toward the poor people being in the state of condition that they are in. Although their views are different what they are proposing in both documents can help the poor people. Carnegie’s The Gospel of Wealth focus more on what the wealthy people should do with their wealth to benefit the society.

Andrew Carnegie, a late 19th century steel magnate, was immensely successful during the Gilded Age. He kept wages low while eliminating competition, so that workers had no choice but to stay in Carnegie’s company. The Gilded Age is so called because the top appeared to be gold (i.e. the richest people were doing extremely well) but on the inside there were insurmountable wealth inequalities (I.e the rich succeeded at the expense of the rest of the nation). Andrew Carnegie was a large causer of wealth inequality . In his “Gospel of Wealth” he justifies the trend by stating that in an ideal world the rich would give to the poor, but unfortunately our world is impossible.

Carnegie was “One of the richest men in Gilded Age America, he promoted what he called the Gospel of Wealth, the idea that those who accumulated money had an obligation to use it to promote the advancement of society. ”(Foner pg.32) This is exactly how he used his wealth to help the less fortunate. Although the Gilded age was good, there were a lot of negatives. There was a tremendous amount of “economic inequality because the state did not regulate the growth of business.

Another reason that his practices are justified is that there was nobody before him to set the example in ethics and no laws requiring a certain pay. His goal was to make as much money as humanly possible and when push comes to shove that is what a business is for. “What few people realize about Carnegie is that his insatiable drive for more and more wealth , without limit, was tied to his conviction that it was his duty to give it all away by the time of his death- so that the richer he became, the more beneficial he could become”. This shows that he was not a greedy scumbag who was only concerned for himself and reiterating the fact that he was a captain of industry and not a robber

The context given over Andrew Carnegie led me to believe many things going towards him as a human. Andrew Carnegie had many things accomplished in his life there is much evidence backing up him as a businessman, boss, and one of the richest men in the world. Andrew Carnegie was a classic rag to riches tail, from him coming to the US as an immigrant to being one of the richest and most eager men in the world. He immigrated to the US due to the swinging door policy the states had, allowing new races cultures, etc, to come over to the US and began a new life. During the time he immigrated to the US, there was a large-scale boom in the economy due to the industrial revolution allowing there to be more potential for success.

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.

One piece of evidence that supports this reason is in document B. We can see that Carnegie said that he didn't want to leave his money with his family. But inside of leaving his money with his family, He would leave it to better uses. I believe in not leaving all of his money with his family because they didn't work for it and other people need it. A second piece of supporting evidence is in document B as well. He didn't leave his money with his family.

In the Gospel of Wealth article, Carnegie argues that the best way on helping society was to help improve people themselves. Carnegie did not believe that the rich simply give the money directly towards the poor. Instead, he wanted to set up intuitions for the poor to allow people to help there self. According to Carnegie, “ [T]he main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves; to provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so...” (Carnegie, 1889).

Furthermore, in Document D, during 1875 & 1876, Andrew Carnegie was profiting $10 for one ton of steel rails and ripping people’s money off when he could’ve just profited by $3 per ton of steel rails like he did in

Andrew Carnegie could have let his employees keep their wages and worry about donations later. Taking money away to invest it somewhere else is not helping, because the people

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.

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

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.

Andrew Carnegie was one of the most famous and wealthiest American industrialist during the Industrial Age. He was a robber baron who made a fortune in the steel industry and applied vertical integration to his business. Carnegie contradicted his views as a robber baron because he supported, but destroyed many unions. This made many of his views unethical.

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”.