Andrew Carnegie's The Gospel Of Wealth

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Andrew Carnegie’s self-styled system which he details in his Gospel of Wealth is innately discriminatory to any person that does not fully meet the criteria of being an able-bodied, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon male. As a country built upon risk-taking men and their families who left their familiar home environment for a life of great labor in a society operating upon aggressive competition during the height of the Industrial Revolution, the common ambition of achieving the American Dream for themselves and their descendants made Social Darwinism a relevant and realistic arrangement. Though, naturally, as a nation established, constructed, and maintained by immigrants of almost infinitely numerous cultures, diversity has become a significant issue …show more content…
The “survival of the fittest” mentality that Carnegie has proposed as applicable to our society is not only insulting of our remarkable nature, but completely ignorant of it. The Theory of Evolution states that those beings who are unfit, be it due to an illness or defect, will naturally and deservedly die off, thereby creating a capable, worthy species. However, as humans, we are an aware and empathetic race, and we are intelligent and innovative enough to have advanced the field of medicine to tend to those ill or defective. Yet Carnegie’s proposal does not protect, nor even attend to, the needs of those who are physically or mentally incapable of working or receiving an education. There will, undoubtedly, always be those who are incapable, by no choice or fault of their own, among us, and if we are so prideful of our superiority as humans, it is only ethical to somehow look after the unfit. Social Darwinism is, quite literally, a death sentence. Those who cannot look after themselves physically, or cannot muster the resources to receive medical care that would lead to competence, will be unable to work, and those who cannot work will starve. Perhaps in the 19th century, such a view would have been more tolerated, when death, while still generally frowned
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