LAD #21 Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Summary of Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth speech, 1889:

Carnegie states how civilization has changed and revolutionized within the past hundred years in that the homes, lives, and possessions of the wealthy have advanced drastically beyond those of the common laborer. However, he states that the economic inequality is actually a good thing, for it provides for the development of art and the advancement of "civilization", which effects not only the wealthy but also the common laborer.

Carnegie then raises a question- "What is the proper mode of administering [the] wealth..." that has fallen into the hands of the few. He then proposes three solutions, and then considers each of these three "modes". First, he states that a family's wealth could be kept and passed down through the family, in some cases from father to son. However, he dislikes this mode, for "great sums bequeathed oftener work more for the injury than for the good of the recipients." 


Next, he mentions the public dispersal of wealth after the death of the wealthy. He states this may be the wisest option, but he believes that such a situation would reflect the government's "condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life." Thus, this "death tax" actually serves to provide incentive for millionaires to spend money for the good of public works while alive, which he states is the "and that society should always have in view".


His third "mode" and most worthy method of wealth distribution is for the wealthy to use their surplus for the good of the masses-
   "Under its sway we shall have an ideal state, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense, the property of the many, because administered for the common good, and this wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves."


Thus, in effect, the wealthy should spend some money on their legitimate wants, and the remaining surplus should be considered as "trust funds" that the wealthy have been called upon to administer for the most practical and beneficial result for the community. The wealthy become the "trustee for his poorer brethren, who do a better job for them than they could do for themselves.