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the wealth accumlated by andrew carnegie
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Andrew Carnegie, born 1835 in the small town of Dunfermline, Scotland. He remains one of the richest people who ever lived and became the world’s first modern philanthropist. He has impacted many across the country and the world. He had lived in one of the first mansions with a steel frame and central heating. By the end of his life he had given over 2,600 public libraries to broaden the education of many in the United States and Scotland. This fairy tale life didn’t start off so happily. Carnegie’s family wasn’t the most affluent in the country, they were actually desperately poor, however, their influence on Andrew and his brother Tom, was rich. Carnegie’s mother, Margaret Carnegie, taught him the thirst to survive and thrive. She taught him to put his needs before the needs of anyone else. This greatly affected his business and business techniques later in life. His father, William Carnegie, was a handloom weaver, who believed in making conditions better for the working man and taught him the value of helping others less fortunate. Andrew Carnegie once said, "He who dies thus rich dies disgraced"; the teachings of his father were well absorbed and helped him later in life as well.
It was Margaret Carnegie who had the idea of emigrating to the United States where the whole family could have a new start and make a better life for themselves. They were fully committed, they borrowed money from a friend and sold all of their possessions and made the seven week long journey to the new world. Andrew Carnegie took a job in a mill in Pittsburgh to try and help the family’s struggle to live and make ends meet. Carnegie then took a better job in a different factory for more money, but when the factory owner found out that Andrew had som...
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...nion conceded. Three hundred locked-out workers applied for work and were rehired. Many more were blacklisted. With the union gone, Carnegie cut wages, made twelve-hour workdays, and eliminated 500 jobs. "Oh that Homestead blunder," Carnegie wrote a friend. "But it's fading as all events do & we are at work selling steel one pound for a half penny."
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Even though these men attempted to build a stable foundation for America to grow on, their negative aspects dramatically outweighed the positive. Even though Andrew Carnegie donated his fortunes to charity, he only acquired the money through unjustifiable actions. As these industrialists continued to monopolize companies through illegal actions, plutocracy- government controlled by the wealthy, took control of the Constitution. Sequentially, they used their power to prevent controls by state legislatures. These circumstances effect the way one
Carnegie was the classic rags to riches story, the penniless immigrant who made it big in the land of opportunity. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland, and migrated to America in 1848 at the age of 13. His first job was in a cotton mill, earning a measly $1.20 each week. Carnegie was ambitious and determined though and by the next year had gotten a job in a Pittsburg telegraph office. It was here he got his foot in the door to the business of Pittsburg. This allowed him to begin a job at the Pennsylvania Railroad as a secretary to the railroad official, Thomas Scott. By making wise choices, taking contro...
In this essay I was asked to compare Wal-Mart's Sam Walton to a 19th century business tycoon. I chose to do Andrew Carnegie who was the leader of the steel industry in the late 1800's. Both these men had different views on competition, government involvement, interaction with labor and charity.
Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropy made him a hero because he helped more people than harm in the long run, by this I mean he helped other countries. He also sets a great example to everyone that helping others or someone is not something you need to wait to do when you are no longer living. If someone needed help and even a stable person had the choice to help but until they are no longer alive has little meaning. Perhaps it would be too late when the person isn’t around anymore. Its about what someone can do to help when they are around, it is about what a person can do in the time of need even if it is not much but a little of anything can go a long way. In (Doc C) there is a list of amounts of money that Carnegie has donated to various places which in total he has donated well over $271m but aside from that his corporation is giving out about $100m a year, most of it to education (Doc C)
A penny saved may be a penny earned, just as a penny spent may begin to better the world. Andrew Carnegie, a man known for his wealth, certainly knew the value of a dollar. His successful business ventures in the railroad industry, steel business, and in communications earned him his multimillion-dollar fortune. Much the opposite of greedy, Carnegie made sure he had what he needed to live a comfortable life, and put what remained of his fortune toward assistance for the general public and the betterment of their communities. He stressed the idea that generosity is superior to arrogance. Carnegie believes that for the wealthy to be generous to their community, rather than live an ostentatious lifestyle proves that they are truly rich in wealth and in heart. He also emphasized that money is most powerful in the hands of the earner, and not anyone else. In his retirement, Carnegie not only spent a great deal of time enriching his life by giving back; but also often wrote about business, money, and his stance on the importance of world peace. His essay “Wealth” presents what he believes are three common ways in which the wealthy typically distribute their money throughout their life and after death. Throughout his essay “Wealth”, Andrew Carnegie appeals to logos as he defines “rich” as having a great deal of wealth not only in materialistic terms, but also in leading an active philanthropic lifestyle. He solidifies this definition in his appeals to ethos and pathos with an emphasis on the rewards of philanthropy to the mind and body.
He started with nothing and was able to be very successful. By working hard, he was hired by a railroad company. He was smart and open up a factory to change iron to steel and sell it to every on the market. Carnegie want to be able to own everything to be able to charge less which makes him able to control most of the market. This makes him extremely wealthy and shows people that if they work hard, they can become wealthy. Andrew Carnegie then began to think about his wealth and what he should do with it. He comes to the decision that he should give back to people and use his money for good. Carnegie then writes a book called The Gospel of Wealth. The Gospel of Wealth stated that it is the wealthy’s job to give to the poor to help them survive. It was everyone’s responsibility to help the people that were in need. Individual wealth should be passed to the society or the state rather than their kids and the wealthy should administer it. The rich were the fittest people so it should be their duty to take care of the poor or less fit people.
Chapter three Pittsburg and Work of Andrew Carnegies autobiography starts off with a 13-year-old Carnegie thinking about going to work. He already determined that his family should be able to make 300 dollars a year, which would keep them from depending on others. Uncle Hogan had already seen the businessman in Carnegie at a very young age. He tells Carnegie that he was a likely boy and apt to learn; and believed that if a basket were fitted out for him with knickknacks to sell, he could peddle them around the wharves and make quite a considerable sum. This comment by Uncle Hogan leaves Carnegies mother outraged. She wanted her two sons Carnegie and his brother to always be honorable, respectful and always do what is right. Soon after the incident Carnegies father gave up handloom weaving for the cotton factory. This decision also granted Carnegie a position as a bobbin boy, where he made one dollar and twenty cents per week. Carnegie will go on to make millions after, but he
Growing up as a young boy in Scotland, Carnegie's family was not very wealthy. They immigrated to America where Carnegie went from working as a bobbin boy, making $1.20 per hour, to making millions of dollars later in his life. Carnegie did not become wealthy by unethical means, as a Robber Baron would. Instead he worked very hard and wise to get to where he was during that time. Andrew Carnegie came from "rags to riches" in his lifetime and it paid off.
The Chinese and Irish laborers answered strongly when asked to help build the Transcontinental Railroad that connected the Pacific and the Atlantic Coasts. During the long process the immigrant workers encountered harsh weather and living and working conditions. Their work produced the Great Iron Trail in an incredibly short time with minimal resources and equipment. Their struggles are often overlooked and their overseers credited with the building of the railroad. The Chinese and Irish found what entertainment they could, often challenging each other to lay more track in one day than the other. Both found a hostile country in the management of the railroad companies and the U.S. government that rejected them from the work place and drove them to accept the poor conditions presented by the railroad positions. The two groups couldn’t have been more different, yet they came together to create a revolutionary railway and opened a new era in the United States. Their great influence may have made the completion of the transcontinental railroad possible.
Roark, J. L. (2012). The American promise a history of the United States (Fifth edition, Value ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Throughout Carnegies life he struggled to find a balance between two ideals; to make money, and to stand up for the working man. He obviously leaned more towards making money than he did working for labor rights, but Carnegie’s contributions to his community, the United States, and the world can not be understated.
Andrew Carnegie did not seem to care for others because while his workers were losing money, Carnegie was donating money to other countries, and even different organizations. Most of Andrew Carnegie's actions showed greed and pride. Carnegie might have been a hero by giving away most of his money. He still died rich, as he said before “He who dies, rich dies disgraced” Don't be fooled by what others tell you, t ould always be sugarcoated. Not everything we see or hear is true. Carnegie treated most people wrongfully. While he was playing all fun and games, donating to others. Carnegie might have been a hero in the eyes of others, but not everyone sees him the same wa. Don't be
While Carnegie held the aptitude for greatness regardless of his surroundings, without free enterprise, he would not have even had to option to take a chance or to explore new ideas. In regulated economies, not only is the currency and producer-consumer relationship controlled by the government, many times the media is as well, as not to create a system in which citizens long for something else. In this case Carnegie would not have had the access to the learning resources that he did, and would never have learned how to use a telegraph machine. There would have been no room for lateral growth, and the world as we know it may not exist without Carnegie’s courage and yearning to better himself and the world.
Breen, T.H., H.W. Brands, et al. America: Past and Present. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson, Print.
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).