December 14

Blog #8 – Should the rich be required to give to charity?

Wealth is an elusive thing, and if everyone could get it, everyone would have it.  But then, if everyone had wealth, who would truly be rich?  – Your mighty editor.

philanthropyThe blog topic – should the rich be required to give to charities? – is a pretty complex question, b/c there are several questions that must be answered when considering this topic:

 – who should be considered rich?

– why are the rich required to give?  Or should they be required to give anything?

 – To what charities deserve $$ and why?081208_Philanthropy

Throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century, the predominant attitude of the wealthy was that it was something special that made them rich.  It could be God-given as in John Rockefeller’s belief “The Good Lord gave me my money.”  Baptist minister Russell Conwell, the founder of Philadelphia’s Temple University, felt that God gave money to those people who would use money for good purposes (1). 

Andrew Carnegie wrote in his 1889 essay, “The Gospel of Wealth,” that money accumulated by the rich is good for society and that the gospel of wealthgovernment shouldn’t interfere with this process.  He also felt that for a wealthy person to pass on his inheritance to his heirs is “injudicious” and that “the condition of this class in Europe to­day teaches the futility of such hopes or ambitions.”  Basically, the heirs will waste it.  Nor should the rich man give it to the government to dispose of b/c the cases of that money being used well have been very few. 

So, Carnegie feels that it is up to the rich man who has made the money to dispose oAndrew-Carnegief it as he sees fit. 

“…the man of wealth thus becoming the sole agent and trustee for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience, and ability to administer-doing for them better than they would or could do for themselves.”

In fact, he is favor of estate taxes (or in current conservative lingo – DEATH TAXES!)  See this quote:

“Men who continue hoarding great sums all their lives, the proper use of which for public ends would work good to the community, should be made to feel that the community, in the form of the state, cannot thus be deprived of its proper share. By taxing estates heavily at death, the state marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire’s unworthy life” (2).

USAcarnegie2Hoarding is no good, and Carnegie gave away almost his entire fortune – $325 million – with another $30 million set aside for other things.  Rockefeller gave away over half a billion dollars! 

Put yourself in their shoes:

1. Would you want someone, anyone, telling you who to donate $?   Why or why not?   Or is it your responsibility to donate your fortune before you die?  Why or why not?

2. What current charities or causes would you think deserve your money?

Please answer these two questions – minimum of 200 words for both questions.  Due Thursday 12/16 by the beginning of class. 

Sources:

1. Capitalism in the Gilded Age – http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h849.html 

2. Modern History Sourcebook – Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth – http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.html