Reference no: EM133732004

Assignment:

This discussion asks you to grapple with the evolution of American capitalism after the Civil War and through the turn of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1870s, American industry began to expand and produce rapidly, and this new industry, and a surging population, began finally to link the country's two major coasts together. The new era of industrialization generated unprecedented levels of wealth and, in many ways, political power for private businessmen. As men like Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan began to exert the full weight of their influence on U.S. capitalism and democracy, the vast majority of the population began to get a taste of the levels of class inequality that industrialized countries in Europe had been dealing with for a little longer. It was clear more needed to be done to put the nation's collective wealth toward the benefit of more of the population, but how America would achieve any level of wealth redistribution was an open and contested question. For those at the top of the socio-economic ladder, the answer did not involve the federal government. To summarize this viewpoint, in 1889, Andrew Carnegie published an essay that described in direct terms why he thought the rich and powerful should be trusted to look out for the interests of America's working class.

In his famous essay titled "Wealth" (often referred to as the "Gospel of Wealth"), the founder and owner of U.S. Steel Andrew Carnegie argued that, rather than depend on taxes to support public projects and social safety nets, the American people could trust the wealthy to donate most or all of their money to charities, or to spend it in ways that benefited American society at large. Based on the principles of Social Darwinism - a pseudo-scientific theory that applies Darwin's theory of Natural Selection to human behavior and society - Carnegie claimed the wealthy were simply the most talented and intelligent, based on their success, and so they should be the ones deciding how to spend the nation's stockpiles of wealth.

Do you agree or disagree with Carnegie's thinking that America would be better off taxing the wealthy far less, and trusting them to use their extreme wealth to help the general American populace? Use examples from the text and/or from other moments in American history to back up your argument. (Although it is not required reading for this assignment, students are encouraged to locate an open-source version of Carnegie's essay and review it before making their responses.)