Gospel of Wealth

What do you do if you have millions or billions of dollars? You give it away, of course! According to "Gospel of Wealth" author Andrew Carnegie, it was the God-given responsibility of the wealthy elite to give away their money to help the less fortunate. During the Gilded Era (the late eighteenth to the nineteenth century), heavy industry and corporations dominated people's lives, and many were stricken with poverty. In his "Gospel of Wealth" essay, Carnegie argues against wasting money on extravagance and other forms of self-indulgence. Continue reading to see how Carnegie proposed dealing with the wealth inequality of the Gilded Era!

Gospel of Wealth Definition

The Gospel of Wealth was an essay written by wealthy industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1889. The paper describes the responsibilities of the wealthy, the impacts of capitalism, and the solution to the inequality problem.

Gospel of Wealth Historical Context

Three main ideas help contextualize Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth in history:

• America's role in the Gilded Era.
• Rapid American industrialization.
• The theory of Social Darwinism.

The Gilded Era

The Gilded Era was a period of rapid economic and industrial growth that led to wealthy industrialists controlling every aspect of American industry to reap the financial benefits.

Fig. 1 Political Cartoon depicting Captains of Industry and the laborers.

A significant wealth gap occurred during this era between the industrialists/businessmen and the lower classes. Problems also occurred when labor unions and factory owners collided. Deep corruption often plagued many areas of American society, especially in industries.

Industrialization

The Second Industrial Revolution saw several growing industries, including railroads, steel, and mining. Large factories and assembly lines helped revolutionize the production of goods and facilitated cheaper-priced products. Skilled artisans and laborers became outdated as the need for unskilled, wage workers rapidly increased. While the need for unskilled laborers soared, jobs for skilled laborers were also created. Industrialization also strongly influenced America's social structure, making the middle class.

Fig. 2 The Carnegie Steel Plant.

The middle class rose from an industrial need for managers, secretaries, and bookkeepers to run everyday operations. Both men and women were hired to fill these positions, with women taking on most clerical and secretary jobs. The need for this new managerial staff facilitated the emergence of the middle class. This social class accumulated plenty of leisure time and a steady income that they used to help fuel the economy.

The Gilded Age economy functioned on the principle of laissez-faire policies which helped certain business people amass great wealth. At the end of the nineteenth century, one percent of the population controlled twenty-five percent of the country's wealth. The significant wealth gap helped fuel disputes between labor unions and factory owners.

Social Darwinism

The social theory of Social Darwinism dominated the Gilded Era and believed that the wealthy were the more robust species while the weak were the poor and poverty-stricken.

Fig. 3 Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher who created the principal of Social Darwinism Source: Wikimedia Commons

Social Darwinism began to take hold in American society in the 1870s and continued throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. Proponents of the social theory embraced laissez-faire policies where the government took a hands-off approach to economic competition.

Andrew Carnegie Gospel of Wealth

Carnegie worked from a young age and eventually became one of the wealthiest industrialists of his time. Head of a massive steel company, Carnegie Steel, he vertically integrated his company, consolidating all the methods needed for production. Integrating his company vertically, Carnegie controlled every phase of steel production - from mining the iron ore, its transportation on railroads, and its manufacture in steel mills.

Due to the success of his company, he amassed great financial success. He believed his responsibility was to use his money to benefit others with this wealth.

Carnegie believed that appropriate management of the wealthy's money could bring people together instead of widening the societal gap between the rich and poor.

Fig. 4 Andrew Carnegie

Strongly identifying with his philanthropic beliefs, Carnegie wrote the Gospel of Wealth in 1889. Coming from a poor Scottish immigrant family, Carnegie understood the struggles faced by the poor. Later in his life, Carnegie would come to donate almost 90% of his wealth. However, Carnegie did not support the charity but instead wished to create opportunities for the community to help themselves. Therefore, he focused his philanthropic work on libraries and universities.

Gospel of Wealth Meaning

Carnegie wished for other wealthy elite to take part in their God-given responsibility of philanthropic work. His key points in the essay focused on the philanthropic responsibility of the rich and included defending the wealthy. Within his article, he also discusses capitalism's positive and negative attributes.

Fig. 5 Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy is shown as showering his money, 1903.

Carnegie believed that capitalism brought a positive impact by decreasing the prices of goods and making luxurious goods a necessity for living. Interestingly, Carnegie points out that an adverse effect of capitalism is the product of great inequality. Maintaining his support for attaining massive wealth, Carnegie also instructed other individuals on how to spend their wealth. He believed the rich should follow a humble lifestyle and not publicly flaunt their wealth. Carnegie also thought that philanthropy was the critical solution to the problem of inequality.

Who agreed with Carnegie?

Due to his defense of wealth and pushback on the redistribution of money, Carnegie's most prominent supporters were the elite class.

However, both the poverty-stricken and labor unions strongly disagreed and wished to implement more radical policies regarding wealth. For example, many wanted to have the forced redistribution of wealth, essentially communism, to answer the wealth gap.

Gospel of Wealth Summary

Carnegie's essay on wealth is considered one of the fundamental founding principles of philanthropy. In the text below, notice how Carnegie likens philanthropy to embodying the spirit of Jesus.

Gospel of Wealth Significance

Carnegie's essay on wealth is a defining piece of literature in the Gilded Age. The Gospel of Wealth influenced much of the upper class, like fellow industrialist John D. Rockefeller, who donated much of his wealth to philanthropic endeavors. Yet, there were also negative consequences of Carnegie's essay.

Fig. 6 Portrait of John D. Rockefeller.

Some wealthy businessmen used the Gospel of Wealth to excuse their riches. In his essay, Carnegie upheld a dominant social theory of the era, Social Darwinism, believing that the wealthy are the most intelligent and superior species. In defending this societal theory, Carnegie condones its continued belief.