I’m curious what you guys thoughts and opinions are on Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth”.
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Thoughts on "The Gospel of Wealth"
I’m curious what you guys thoughts and opinions are on Andrew Carnegie’s “The Gospel of Wealth”.
Robert, thanks for mentioning that work. I had no read it before. Carnegie was a very interesting man. He seems to have bought into the collectivist thinking of the time as well as social Darwinism. Where as an AnCap I believe that a man’s wealth is his private property to do with as he pleases, Mr. Carnegie seemed determined to propose a required way to handle your wealth. He relied on the tool of shame to attempt to force it on others.
He did practice what he preached and did some good with his wealth, private property. While he had the right to express his opinion he came off as a bit elitist to me.
While leaving money to young heirs and pampering your children is indeed typically destructive. Once the children have become at least 40 they have learned many of the lessons in life regarding money and become much wiser stewards if they have not been hobbled by excessive subsidization by family or government.
Finally, he seems to think because someone is able to amass wealth that he knows what’s better for you than you do yourself. This may be the most egregious error he made. It is the same fatal conceit that the government engages in and to no surprise he applauded the second helpings of people’s earnings at the time of their death.
Any man is welcome to his opinion but I’m a little disappointed that Mr. Carnegie was so eager to point the guns of the state at peaceful people and violate the NAP by proxy.
It’s been I while since I’ve read it to be honest. I’m going to have to read it again to refresh myself. Thanks for your response. I’ll have hopefully something to add after I read it.
Most religions I’ve studied are based on obedience and selfishness. You’ll hear lot of talk about empathy, but not much about letting people do what they please. Christians in general seem in this great big hurry to have other people join their cult, which is a bit disturbing.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out why some people are so obsessed with what other people do and say. There ought to be a Bible verse which says, “leave people alone.”
It’s been a number of years since I read it, but I was impressed by how easily he climbed in rank at the rail road and how he was given so much control so early. These days, you’d need a college degree, specialized training, internships, and years of drudgery before you can do the things he was doing before he was 30. Times have changed.
There’s some good advice in there about taking control and demonstrating your value but I remember agreeing with him less as the book progressed.
Winter, I think you are looking for Matthew 7: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened
and Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Both are listed as quotes of Jesus in the Bible so anyone claiming to be Christian should respect them.
