Jacob Wang Week 9: Spending Money
In my POAS research on Andrew Carnegie, much of it revolved around money. In Carnegie’s time, the gap between the American rich and poor was the greatest it had ever been (with the exception of modern day) and the enormously wealthy and powerful people like Carnegie were called robber barons. In reading his autobiography, these millionaires did all sorts of corrupt things like lobbying the government or making secret deals. Carnegie himself had lots of connections with the railroad companies as he was a former worker and also knew a lot of other really rich guys. What I found really crazy is his philosophy on distribution of wealth. He was sort of a believer in Social Darwinism, thinking that rich people are just born naturally smarter and better leading to their wealth, yet since he himself was born as a poor Scottish boy who immigrated to the US it sort of contradicted this belief. Apart from that, he thought that rich people “deserved” to have all the power and money concentrated in them to make the decisions for the poor people. Since rich people obviously knew better, Carnegie exploited and suppressed the poor workers to gain his enormous wealth as the richest man of his time and then spent pretty much all of it in his philanthropy.
According to Carnegie, if he didn’t do this his workers would just waste it on things like alcohol or fancy food rather than self-betterment and education. And to some degree, I kind of agree with him. I have seen some pretty deranged uses of money online and maybe it could be better. But this power to decide where wealth is spent obviously should not belong exclusively to the rich people. Ideally tax money does the same thing, but it gives power to the government instead. In the end, I guess I still prefer Carnegie's philanthropy to what some of the modern day billionaires do.
Hey Jacob! I find it commendable how you were able to creatively express the research you had done for your Person of American Significance project in the form of this gripping blog. The way you transitioned between your own personal beliefs, the history of American capitalism, and the perspective of Carnegie made this narrative thorough and thoughtful. Your method of exploring the juxtaposition in Carnegie’s own upbringing and adult life, as well as his greed in making money with his goal of philanthropy helps explain the depth of his character. Your take on Carnegie's use of the money from his workers is well-backed with modern examples, as witnessed in your attached video about mindless spending on something like a mango tree. I do partially agree with the outcomes this practice produced, but at the same time question the means of taking away power from the consumer through socialist values. I believe your blog appropriately explored the variation of economic behaviors of the past and present, especially among the rich, making it an engaging and thought provoking blog. I hope to read more about your ideas over the next semester!
ReplyDeleteHi Jacob! Incorporating your POAS into your blog made me even more curious to read it. Your balance on your views on him during this time and Carnegie's actions reveals that you have done a lot of research into your POAS and is admirable. The part where you said that Carnegie's belief contradicted himself made me even more inclined to discover why that was and giving his background information of why the statement contradicted itself was helpful. Using modern examples of how money is not used thoughtfully perfectly supports the first chunk of your blog. i agree with you on the claim that money should not belong exclusively to rich people and that the government also uses our tax money wrong. Your blog was a perfect example of power differences and using your POAS was a great usage to your blogs perspective!
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