The gospel of wealth
and other timely essays
by Andrew Carnegie · first published 1901
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That was Andrew Carnegie's goal. Way before becoming rich he had a goal to give away mass sums of money. He wrote about his philanthropic philosophy in The Gospel of Wealth, summarized here: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.html
on “Paul Allen commits majority of his wealth to philanthropy” ↗> I wouldn't call things like the giving pledge "business as usual" in big philanthropy. I can't think of any prior art for it. Andrew Carnegie, in The Gospel of Wealth, railed against inheritance and said, "The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced". He advised fellow millionaires of his era to donate their fortunes during their lifetime to activities that would create…
on “If money doesn't make you happy, you probably aren't spending it right [pdf]” ↗Sounds like people are starting to take Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" to heart (although I guess Page would only be going half way). It's kind of exciting actually - I think this is the first time in history where enough wealthy people are going that route that we can…
on “Larry Page: I’d Rather Leave My Billions to Elon Musk Than to Charity” ↗Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel of Wealth[1] lies squarely in the center of the foundational belief that those who've acquired such means have done so because they reflect "the highest type of man, the best and most valuable of all that humanity…
on “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” ↗…improve their popularity through PR and philanthropy. Some of the industrialists themselves were even conflicted about the role of extreme wealth in society, which motivated writings like Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth", in which he argued that the wealthy had an obligation to spend their wealth to improve society through philanthropy, and ought not to either spend it purely on personal luxury, or to keep it and produce…
on “Cockroach farms multiplying in China” ↗…benefitted, but they preferred redistribution managed by the monopoly capitalists themselves in the form of philanthropy, which they felt they would be able to thoughtfully manage (Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel of Wealth is representative of this view).
on “Project Cybersyn (1971)” ↗Andrew Carnegie recommended this in "The Gospel of Wealth" (written in 1889): http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx...
on “Bill and Melinda Gates Aren’t Leaving Their Kids Billions” ↗Maybe find a way to inspire in the rich the kind of philanthropy practiced by Andrew Carnegie. He wrote his views in, The Gospel of Wealth - not having read it, but having long heard Carnegie's name as an example of wealth turned to good, I'm planning to give it a read. Unfortunately with a political system wholly owned by the wealthy (US),…
on “Shit Life Syndrome” ↗Prosperity gospel is a peculiar American brand of protestant pentecostal evangelism that is the motivating aspect of the Green family. While it has no Biblical basis, it does riff on Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth and has a number of parallels in the so-called Effective Altruism movement.
on “The great Hobby Lobby artifact heist” ↗…persistent cultural myth that money = merit[1][2], so it's not entirely different. 1. Acres of Diamonds. Russell Conwell. 1900. https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rconwellacresofdia... 2. The Gospel of Wealth. Andrew Carnegie. 1889. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gospel_of_Wealth
on “Random selection is necessary to create stable meritocratic institutions” ↗…one of the worst of the lot - but Andrew Carnegie. I think it takes a special single mindedness to come from nothing and become as rich as he did. Then his commitment to give the money away - and his Gospel of Wealth. The building of libraries, even Sesame Street all stem from Carnegie At the same time its hard to juxtapose the bad with the good
on “Ask HN: Who is your favourite Entrepreneur/Visionary?” ↗>The Gospel of Wealth The book from anti-union Carnegie, which recommended to his fellow wealthy that they uplift society while actively undermining the efforts of workers to improve their own lives? By "let's" I mean us,…
on “Billionaire Tax Officially Heads to Nov. 3 Ballot” ↗