Would you want to work long hours in a factory for little pay? No? I didn’t think so. This is just one of the many reasons that many people considered Andrew Carnegie to not only be a robber baron, but also a villain. Two-faced, hypocritical, uncaring; these were just some of the words that were used to describe Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because of his money consciousness, poor treatment to workers, and his robber-baron tactics.
Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because of his money consciousness. Carnegie never let up on his watch on costs throughout all of his years in the steel industry (Doc 3). Carnegie was a person that believed that you should know your monthly income. He liked to keep track of his earnings, and make sure that he was not losing any money. Carnegie would cut costs just to make a profit.
Carnegie was not a person who treated his workers fairly. Most, if not all, of Carnegie’s workers earned less than two dollars a day, whereas Carnegie earned about $92,000 a day (Doc 7). Some of Carnegie’s workers were beaten and threatened. The working conditions in his factories were terrible and unsafe. Carnegie exploited his workforce, and then gave away his money the less fortunate to salve his troubled conscience. Carnegie rendered his money to people other than his workers to appease his “integrity”.
Andrew Carnegie did all he could to stay on top. He used vertical integration to acquisition all other companies that tried to run against him and failed (Doc 5). Andrew Carnegie believed in Social Darwinism (Doc 2). Carnegie believed in pre-determination, which meant that you would only become rich if you were supposed to.
In conclusion, Andrew Carnegie was not a hero because of his philanthropy and his circle of wealth, but a villain because of said reasons. Carnegie only cared about his money, even though he attempted to make it seem like he did not. Andrew Carnegie was not a