Analysis of 'Wealth" by Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a business man prominent in America. He was a Scottish immigrant who became successful through the steel, oil and railroad industry. I strongly agree with many points Carnegie makes throughout his essay about wealth and how the standards of living has increased. This paper will contain information about Carnegie’s reason for writing the paper as well as an analysis of the explanation intended to the audience he was trying to communicate with, and pointing out methods he used to persuade them. Carnegie makes various arguments in his essay one being that the rich should use the fortune to help the society and make the society better. Another point he also makes is that the corporate titans worked for the wealth so they deserve all the money they had, he also points out how the sons of those who had money should not get their parents riches because many of them unfortunately do not know how to use it. 

There might be various reasons why he wrote the essay one being because of the situation in America at the time. In the late 1800s and early 1900s the factories such as steel and natural resources were blooming making the majority of American’s work for cooperation resulting in independent workers want to defend and protect their jobs. In his essay Carnegie talked about the economic state of a farmer at the time he wrote the essay and the times before that. In my opinion Carnegie wrote the essay for the farmers or those other independent workers that are avoiding working for a large corporation as well as for the rich who do not wish to share their fortunes for the wellbeing of the community.

In his essay Carnegie uses various examples to persuade and convince his audience saying that the old times are nothing compared to the current time he was writing his paper on, he goes on to explain that nor yet master or the servants of the house lived as well as they live at the time he was writing the paper. He mentions this in his essay and explains that when people complain and refer to good old days as good the truth is that the statement is false because the economic state of the people was worse back then. This a very good fact to put out there because with this statement the farmers and other independent workers can compare their economic situation then and now and can see that industrialization really helped them advance economically. Another strategy is that throughout the essay he points out how because of industrialization farmers and other low-income workers live better than how the rich lived before. In summary, he states that the economic situation of the landlord at that time is greater and better than ever before, and then he talks about how farmers live in a better house have books and pictures something that wasn’t affordable before.

I personally agree with some points that Carnegie makes in his essay. The first point is the fact that he says that the rich after providing their family’s needs have to contribute to help improve society. He points out that a rich person’s duty should be not to show of how rich and powerful he is but after providing for his family he should donate to causes that help with the improvement of the society they live in. I agree with this statement because many wealthy people should take this as an example since most of them unfortunately do not do much to help other people that needed it hence making more people have need and instead of improving society it gets worse. Another argument that Carnegie talked about in his paper that I strongly agree on is the fact that many of the children of the rich do not use their parent’s money wisely instead carelessly spend it and do not work hard for anything in life. Carnegie states in his essay that in very rare occasions the offspring or the heir of a millionaire spends the money earned from their parents wisely unfortunately it does not occur very often. All parents want to look after their child and keep their little one happy but the aspect of giving them everything and letting them grow spoiled not caring about anybody else except themselves is not right. I agree and admire Carnegie in the aspect that although he was a millionaire himself he still notice the faults of those in his same economic class. I agree with Carnegie statement that in the old times people didn’t have the possibilities they had before at the time he wrote the essay, he backs up his statement with examples like stating the economic state of the farmer at the times of the essay versus before were they were not able to afford as much with sentence I could see and have an example of what times were like back then which is exactly why I agree. Over all in this essay Carnegie was successful in making and proving his argument because with every point made he elaborates and provides extensive reasoning on why he thinks that way.