Andrew Carnegie's Essay: The Gospel Of Wealth

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Andrew Carnegie’s essay, “Gospel of Wealth,” is built upon many Darwinian underpinnings. His essay is based upon the idea of “survival of the fittest” and how there are winners and losers in society. He believes that there must be competition in society to allow for growth and evolution. Also, Carnegie believes in the Darwinist idea of the “naturally selected.” He says that those with wealth are the better sort and because of this, they have a responsibility towards those without property. And finally, the “Gospel of Wealth” is constructed upon the foundational Darwinian idea of progress, which states that the human condition will improve through science and an organized social order. Andrew Carnegie's objective in improving society is to bridge the massive gap between the wealth class and the poor class. He wants to achieve this by ridding the upper class of “surplus wealth.” In other words, Carnegie wants to ensure that wealth is not wasted and kept dormant in families. Rather, he wants this excess money to be used to build academic institutions and libraries to educate the poor, which will allow these lower-class individuals to become successful, which will ultimately help in bridging the gap. Andrew Carnegie’s ideas are extremely relevant in our modern day. Nowadays, there is a huge divide between upper and lower classes. If Carnegie’s Darwinian ideas were strictly enforced and if all those with wealth were willing to give …show more content…
Carnegie’s arguments have huge implications to our modern day and strives should be taken to try and implement them in our society, as they are bound to dispose of “surplus wealth” and produce
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