Andrew Carnegie And Bill Gates Essay
Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates: both incredibly rich, incredibly generous (or so it appears) men from two differing time periods.Both men were self-made and owed their wealth to much hard work, and both were distinguished figures during their times. Furthermore, both utilized their wealth to perpetuate meaningful social change rather than reforming society altogether. Despite the similarities they share, the two men originated from relatively different backgrounds and did their benefacting through different methods. Renowned Progressive Era thinker and wealthy capitalist Andrew Carnegie did not always live so lavishly. Originally from a poor Scottish family, Carnegie learned early on from his parents the virtue of frugality and the significance of equality amongst the working class and the wealthy.The family eventually relocated to Pittsburgh
…show more content…
in search of better working opportunities.Despite this, they were still impoverished. Carnegie started working small jobs such as a spool operator in a textile factory to assist the struggling family.When he worked as a telegraph operative at the Pennsylvania Railroad, he attained the attention of a prominent railroad officer, which contributed to his rising above other railroad workers and ending up as a higher ranked worker himself.Henceforth, he invested in successful stocks and became a wealthy man. He then famously became an illustrious figure in the steel industry, aided by the frugal tactics he had learned from his mother as well as his sometimes ruthless business tactics.Carnegie was an avid supporter of capitalism, whose principles revolved around “privately owned industry and individual gain through high profits,” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 102).He was also a reputable philanthropist who spent over 90% of his riches on improving social conditions, as a tribute to his working class roots. In fact, “By his death he had given away more than $350m,” still a considerable sum today().He donated to several organizations to educate and “help the poor help themselves,” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 103). He was regarded by many as a hero, a self-made man who had gotten where he was through intelligence and hard work.However, not all that glitters is gold, meaning that Carnegie’s reputation was far from spotless. His critics believed he represented hierarchical power due to the fact that he had created a monopoly in the steel industry that strongly favored him and left his workers and the few remaining competing companies to eat the dust. Many concurred that Carnegie’s steel workers were overworked and underpaid. He made sure they were in line by picking off labor unions. According to “Meet You in Hell,” a book by Les Standiford, Carnegie was a ruthless employer. At one point, seeking to drive out unions at one of his steel plants, he shut down one of his steel plants under the ruse of “renovations,” putting thousands of men out of work. He threatened to only rehire non-union workers upon reopening the plant, thus extinguishing unions at the plant forever. The workers had to feed their families, so out of desperation, they dropped out of unions and came back to work to a salary that had been cut up to 35% (). These claims and many more of his wrongdoings led to Carnegie citing the theory of Social Darwinism to defend himself against the bulk of these allegations. According to this theory, “economic competition and struggle are natural and that society benefits from the elimination of the poor and ‘unfit,’” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 103).Carnegie suggested he was designed by nature to be ‘fitter’ than others, thus compensating for his treatment of the naturally inferior, his workers.
Despite these not-so-positive actions of his, the United States ultimately benefited from Carnegie’s actions and opinions.
For example, it was Carnegie’s belief that the wealthy should give back to society, and so he did. He stated in an essay, “Wealth,” that the responsibility of the wealthy man is to distribute his wealth for the benefit of the community. He strove to improve society by providing facilities such as “...parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and minds; works of art... and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people,” (Pearson).Among these public institutions were schools and libraries; in fact, Carnegie’s funds helped found over 2800 libraries (). Carnegie felt that the true “Gospel of Wealth” was defined as “administering it [wealth] for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself.” That said, Andrew Carnegie was an altruistic man and used his riches not for “display or extravagance,” but rather to give back to society in the form of public facilities for people to cultivate better conditions for
themselves.
In a similar manner, Bill Gates achieved the status of wealthiest man in the world early in his life and today spends a good chunk of his time working with and donating large amounts of money to charitable foundations with his wife, Melinda Gates. Gates was born to well-off parents. As an adolescent, he went to a high-end private school where he befriended lifelong friend and business partner Paul Allen. They were both interested in computers and programming. Gates goes on to pursue an onerous mathematics and computer science schedule at Harvard University. He did not stay for very long, however, as he had taken some time out of school in 1975 to program and sell a computer language to the creators of the world’s first home computer, MITS. His working title for the software was Micro-Soft. Gates and Allen finalized and registered the trademark as “Microsoft” in 1976. From there, Gates and Allen worked hard to expand Microsoft into an independent company. Gates is quoted saying that he wanted to see “A computer on every desk, and in every home, running Microsoft software” someday (). By the late 1990’s, this goal was not so far out of his reach. In fact, his success is reflected in his 1995 position as the richest man in the world, having amassed a substantial $12.9 billion, at the age of just 39. He maintained this position for 13 consecutive years. Just like Carnegie, Gates is a prominent and wealthy man who built up his wealth from scratch. His work as CEO of Microsoft earned him many accords, including an honorary degree from Harvard University, which he never officially graduated from, as well as an honorary knighthood ceremony by the Queen of England. Similarly to Carnegie, many hailed Gates as a hero and saluted him for his economic impact on the world. In 2006 he resigned as CEO of Microsoft and announced that he and his wife had committed themselves to a philanthropic foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the couple had created when they wed in 1994. He additionally proclaimed that from then on, most of his time would be dedicated to the organization. According to the Gateses’ website, they strike up global partnerships “to tackle critical problems” such as to “... help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty...to harness advances in science and technology to save lives in developing countries...to improve U.S. high school and postsecondary education and support vulnerable children and families,” (). Gates donated $1.5 billion in 2014 alone (). Likewise, Carnegie retired from the steel industry and pledged a life of charity. Furthermore, the Gateses’ first point, which was to “help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty,” reflects Carnegie’s “help the poor help themselves” philosophy. Moreover, like Carnegie, Gates had opposition. According to a 2002 survey, “Americans have a general skepticism about corporate philanthropy . . . The typical reaction is, `Hmm, there must be something in it for the company,' " and this included Microsoft . One person summarized the argument against Gates and his foundation as “‘When I hear about Microsoft's donations, I think here's this giant company just trying to look good after all the bad press it got’...’I also think they donate far less than they could given Bill Gates's billions,’” (The Wall Street Journal). Skeptics proposed that charitable assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is merely self-promotion, when it is in fact an organization with good intentions that has helped people all over the globe lead better lives.
Hence, Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates, although from different backgrounds and different time periods, were in truth two people with very similar actions and opinions. Both men were wealthy philanthropists who built their way up from scratch and strove to form a better society. As one can see, it seems that history has repeated itself with these individuals.
in search of better working opportunities.Despite this, they were still impoverished. Carnegie started working small jobs such as a spool operator in a textile factory to assist the struggling family.When he worked as a telegraph operative at the Pennsylvania Railroad, he attained the attention of a prominent railroad officer, which contributed to his rising above other railroad workers and ending up as a higher ranked worker himself.Henceforth, he invested in successful stocks and became a wealthy man. He then famously became an illustrious figure in the steel industry, aided by the frugal tactics he had learned from his mother as well as his sometimes ruthless business tactics.Carnegie was an avid supporter of capitalism, whose principles revolved around “privately owned industry and individual gain through high profits,” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 102).He was also a reputable philanthropist who spent over 90% of his riches on improving social conditions, as a tribute to his working class roots. In fact, “By his death he had given away more than $350m,” still a considerable sum today().He donated to several organizations to educate and “help the poor help themselves,” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 103). He was regarded by many as a hero, a self-made man who had gotten where he was through intelligence and hard work.However, not all that glitters is gold, meaning that Carnegie’s reputation was far from spotless. His critics believed he represented hierarchical power due to the fact that he had created a monopoly in the steel industry that strongly favored him and left his workers and the few remaining competing companies to eat the dust. Many concurred that Carnegie’s steel workers were overworked and underpaid. He made sure they were in line by picking off labor unions. According to “Meet You in Hell,” a book by Les Standiford, Carnegie was a ruthless employer. At one point, seeking to drive out unions at one of his steel plants, he shut down one of his steel plants under the ruse of “renovations,” putting thousands of men out of work. He threatened to only rehire non-union workers upon reopening the plant, thus extinguishing unions at the plant forever. The workers had to feed their families, so out of desperation, they dropped out of unions and came back to work to a salary that had been cut up to 35% (). These claims and many more of his wrongdoings led to Carnegie citing the theory of Social Darwinism to defend himself against the bulk of these allegations. According to this theory, “economic competition and struggle are natural and that society benefits from the elimination of the poor and ‘unfit,’” (The United States Coming of Age: 1890-1920 103).Carnegie suggested he was designed by nature to be ‘fitter’ than others, thus compensating for his treatment of the naturally inferior, his workers.
Despite these not-so-positive actions of his, the United States ultimately benefited from Carnegie’s actions and opinions.
For example, it was Carnegie’s belief that the wealthy should give back to society, and so he did. He stated in an essay, “Wealth,” that the responsibility of the wealthy man is to distribute his wealth for the benefit of the community. He strove to improve society by providing facilities such as “...parks, and means of recreation, by which men are helped in body and minds; works of art... and public institutions of various kinds, which will improve the general condition of the people,” (Pearson).Among these public institutions were schools and libraries; in fact, Carnegie’s funds helped found over 2800 libraries (). Carnegie felt that the true “Gospel of Wealth” was defined as “administering it [wealth] for the community far better than it could or would have done for itself.” That said, Andrew Carnegie was an altruistic man and used his riches not for “display or extravagance,” but rather to give back to society in the form of public facilities for people to cultivate better conditions for
themselves.
In a similar manner, Bill Gates achieved the status of wealthiest man in the world early in his life and today spends a good chunk of his time working with and donating large amounts of money to charitable foundations with his wife, Melinda Gates. Gates was born to well-off parents. As an adolescent, he went to a high-end private school where he befriended lifelong friend and business partner Paul Allen. They were both interested in computers and programming. Gates goes on to pursue an onerous mathematics and computer science schedule at Harvard University. He did not stay for very long, however, as he had taken some time out of school in 1975 to program and sell a computer language to the creators of the world’s first home computer, MITS. His working title for the software was Micro-Soft. Gates and Allen finalized and registered the trademark as “Microsoft” in 1976. From there, Gates and Allen worked hard to expand Microsoft into an independent company. Gates is quoted saying that he wanted to see “A computer on every desk, and in every home, running Microsoft software” someday (). By the late 1990’s, this goal was not so far out of his reach. In fact, his success is reflected in his 1995 position as the richest man in the world, having amassed a substantial $12.9 billion, at the age of just 39. He maintained this position for 13 consecutive years. Just like Carnegie, Gates is a prominent and wealthy man who built up his wealth from scratch. His work as CEO of Microsoft earned him many accords, including an honorary degree from Harvard University, which he never officially graduated from, as well as an honorary knighthood ceremony by the Queen of England. Similarly to Carnegie, many hailed Gates as a hero and saluted him for his economic impact on the world. In 2006 he resigned as CEO of Microsoft and announced that he and his wife had committed themselves to a philanthropic foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which the couple had created when they wed in 1994. He additionally proclaimed that from then on, most of his time would be dedicated to the organization. According to the Gateses’ website, they strike up global partnerships “to tackle critical problems” such as to “... help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty...to harness advances in science and technology to save lives in developing countries...to improve U.S. high school and postsecondary education and support vulnerable children and families,” (). Gates donated $1.5 billion in 2014 alone (). Likewise, Carnegie retired from the steel industry and pledged a life of charity. Furthermore, the Gateses’ first point, which was to “help the world’s poorest people lift themselves out of hunger and poverty,” reflects Carnegie’s “help the poor help themselves” philosophy. Moreover, like Carnegie, Gates had opposition. According to a 2002 survey, “Americans have a general skepticism about corporate philanthropy . . . The typical reaction is, `Hmm, there must be something in it for the company,' " and this included Microsoft . One person summarized the argument against Gates and his foundation as “‘When I hear about Microsoft's donations, I think here's this giant company just trying to look good after all the bad press it got’...’I also think they donate far less than they could given Bill Gates's billions,’” (The Wall Street Journal). Skeptics proposed that charitable assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is merely self-promotion, when it is in fact an organization with good intentions that has helped people all over the globe lead better lives.
Hence, Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates, although from different backgrounds and different time periods, were in truth two people with very similar actions and opinions. Both men were wealthy philanthropists who built their way up from scratch and strove to form a better society. As one can see, it seems that history has repeated itself with these individuals.