LAD/Blog #22: Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth

Summary:
Andrew Carnegie starts off by discussing the issues in the economy regarding the relationship between the different classes.  The gap between the upper and lower class had gotten much larger due to the changing economy.  However, he also thought that this change was necessary and beneficial, for progress within the nation.  One of the major problems was that wealth was not being distributed equally, but was rather allotted by the government to a small group of citizens.   Carnegie stated that in an effort to remove, or belittle surpluses of wealth, methods such as giving to charity, personal spending, inheritance (passing it down to the next generation), or donating the money for public uses, could not be viable options.  Because he disproved of these methods, he then suggested imposing death taxes as a means to provide state proper share of the fortune, while at the same time allowing many people to have a lot of wealth.  Andrew finishes by declaring that it is the responsibility of the upper class to set good examples and do what is best for the people and the economy as a whole.

The Bank of the United States (the BUS) was very similar to Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth.  For example, both obviously dealt with money, but more importantly, the unequal distribution and benefits of money.  Carnegie explained in his book how a lot of money was given by the government to a select few citizens, instead of being distributed equally throughout the country.  Similarly, the BUS benefited the North more than the South during the 19th century, with more of the deposits being made by the North.  The North was more industrialized, and therefore had a stronger economy and flow of money than the South, which relied more on crops and slave labor.  Because of this, it was argued that the BUS did not support the South enough, and this actually played a role in the causes of the Civil War.