Analysis Of Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel Of Wealth

The main problem encountered by the Gilded Age era was the administration of wealth, at least according to Andrew Carnegie. In his piece, “The Gospel of Wealth,” he proposed a solution for the abuse of wealth, and assigned duties to the rich in regards to how they should handle the responsibilities brought on by excessive wealth. However, he also addressed the concerns of the working class. He stressed the welfares of individualism and argued that it was: contemporary and innovative, enabled the affordability of luxuries to all classes, and thus ensured that money controlled by a few people would be more effective for the prosperity of the economy than it would to equally distribute national wealth amongst citizens. Carnegie intended to clarify the reasons why the newly industrialized economy and the new administration of wealth were ultimately for the benefit and harmony of both rich and poor.

He does so by belittling non-capitalistic societies such as Native American societies and former United States industrialists, and deeming their ideologies antiquated. Since at this time period, Native Americans were considered to be an inferior race, it was appropriate for Carnegie to use them as an example of what they Americans should not become. He tells of how Native Americans are today where they were then, and how just now Native Americans are under economic systems in which the rich and poor share similar lifestyles. Extrapolating further, he tells of his observations upon visiting an Indian village. “The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us to-day measures the change which had come with civilization” He describes how the cottages of the Native American leaders were in no better location nor ornamented any differently than those of the poor in the Indian