Gospel of Wealth

Introduction

Gospel of Wealth is a guiding principle for any person carrying some amount of wealth. The modern world is growing more and more unequal day by day as the rich people are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This difference in wealth concerned an American Steel Industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. He believed in giving wealth away during one’s lifetime, and quoted, “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” Andrew Carnegie’s message inspires leaders and philanthropists all around the world. He wrote an essay in 1889 called ‘Wealth’, and asked his fellow industrialists for their broad social and cultural role. This essay became famous under the name “The Gospel of Wealth” later. It is considered a softer and more palatable version of Social Darwinism. Andrew Carnegie attached responsibility with wealth, arguing that those with great material possessions had equally great obligations to society. He had an impoverished upbringing, still, he developed this mindset of giving away the wealth for the benefit of society. His father was also heavily involved in unions and workers’ rights.

Ways of Disposing Off Wealth

Andrew Carnegie believes in channelizing surplus money after business for the greater benefit of society. He said that whenever a man dies, there are three ways in which he leaves his wealth.
1. The first way includes leaving one’s money to his family or his oldest son, which may be a common practice in Western Europe. According to Carnegie, this is bad as the inheritor of wealth cannot duplicate the styles and strategies of his predecessor no matter how hard he tries. A son can make mistakes in businesses and lose his fortune, or he can break down “from the autumn within the value of the land.” It's also been proven that it's not good for the state for a son to acquire his father’s place as a pacesetter. It could mean that the son has been given these treasures from birth and he doesn't understand and appreciate what he has been bestowed with. He might not be sensitive to all or any that's necessary for the processes of development. 

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2. The second way according to Andrew Carnegie, wealth can be spent is by “leaving his wealth at death for the use of the public”, which is only useful “provided a man is content to wait until he is dead before it does much good in the world”. In the opinion of Andrew Carnegie, the attempts of performing “posthumous good” can most of the time be thwarted and “become only monuments of his folly”. Even worse perhaps, “men who leave vast sums at death this way may fairly be thought men who wouldn't have left it at all, had they been allowed to take it with them”. Also, heavy taxes are levied by the government on the millionaire’s property and these taxes are proof of the state’s “condemnation of the selfish millionaire’s unworthy life”. In fact, Andrew Carnegie believed, “nations should go much further during this direction” and “such taxes should be graduated” until the “millionaire’s hoard” becomes the property of the state. The most beneficial thing for the society is that this approach “would work powerfully to induce the man of means to the administration of wealth during his life”.
3. The third way of disposing of wealth according to Carnegie’s Gospel of wealth is suitable to him, and “in this, we've truth antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth, the reconciliation of rich and poor”. Andrew Carnegie, in Gospel of Wealth, promises “an ideal state, during which the excess wealth of the few will become, within the best sense the property of the many needy people”. The solution given by him is much more superior to the money distribution done in small quantities among the poor people as it might get wasted within the indulgence of appetite. Mr. Cooper’s personally-funded Cooper Institute is the best example of the solution proposed by Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth and by “Mr. Tilden’s bequest of five million dollars for a free library”. Because rich men are more fortunate than most others, they need to be grateful for the opportunities given to them to “organize benefactions from which the masses of their fellows will derive lasting advantage, and thus dignify their own lives”. By living by the instance of Christ, “laboring for the great of our fellows”, such men will fulfill “the duty of the person of Wealth”. Apart from providing for the dependents and living modestly, it is essential for a rich man to “consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds” revenues that must “produce the foremost beneficial results for the community”. In this way, the man of wealth becomes an “agent and trustee for his poorer brothers and sisters.

There is one mid-way solution that pleases both rich and poor and works out best for everybody. This idea differs from communistic ideals of spreading wealth evenly throughout, in the least times, and doesn’t require an overthrow of the government, rather an “evolution of existing conditions.” The idea is that everyone works for himself in achieving wealth, each man fighting for his place, creating competition. Still, they're going to spread their wealth to the masses through public services, thus benefiting all, rather than the cash coming to all or any people in small increments. These ideas especially the concept of anti-communism in Andrew Carnegie’s Wealth essay appealed a lot to the people.

Conclusion

Finally, there are specific duties the rich must do to take care of the balance. The wealthy must be unpretentious in their ways. They must provide modestly for those hooked into them and will think and administer their money within the absolute best manner to profit the poor people. However, in the end, this class structure does little to advance the general welfare of the people. Social Darwinism may be a faulty premise and thus does little to profit humanity. But, the gospel of wealth endorsed by Andrew Carnegie shows the wealthy the correct path to manage their wealth and attain fulfillment at the end of their life.