Andrew Carnegie and Other Rich People
When I think of Andrew Carnegie, the first thing that crosses my mind is not his involvement in the railroad or steel companies, but the 3,000 libraries he established throughout the world. In America alone, Carnegie created 1,689 libraries in places like Tucson, Arizona, San Antonio, Texas, and St. Louis, Missouri.
The stunning Central Library, in St. Louis, MO is still located in the original 1912 building that Andrew Carnegie commissioned. Recently, the library re-opened after undergoing renovations for the past two years. The great-great-grandchildren of Andrew Carnegie attended a special gala event celebrating the library.
The St. Louis Public Library is #2 in the country (in order of greatness) and gives millions of people access to literature, media tools, and literacy initiatives. An exceedingly rich Andrew Carnegie and his philanthropic endeavors are the reason most cities in the United States have successful library systems. Throughout his life, and even almost a century after his death, in creating such places as Carnegie Hall, in donating organs to churches, establishing libraries, universities and charitable entities, Carnegie continues to support the arts and education.
Another famous figure in America, John D. Rockefeller, the oil tycoon, was an insanely philanthropic individual, supporting education for African American women, turning Baptist colleges into world class universities, and also funding progress in the public health sector.
To this day, The Rockefeller Foundation contributes to making our world a better place to live:
"From funding an unknown scholar named Albert Einstein to accelerating the impact investing industry, the Rockefeller Foundation has a long tradition of enhancing the impact of individuals, institutions and organizations working to change the world...We seek to achieve our vision through work aimed at meeting four equally important goals: Revalue Ecosystems; Advance Health; Secure Livelihoods; and Transform Cities."
While not all wealthy people are as philanthropically minded as Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller were, most of them are contributors to various charities and institutions throughout the world. Football player Kurt Warner has a foundation called First Things First which supports low income families and children. Microsoft owner Bill Gates and his wife improve healthcare, and increase educational opportunities through their Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which seeks to alleviate poverty. Speaking of the Gates Foundation, Warren Buffett plans to donate a majority of his wealth to it, as well as to his own Buffet Foundation which donates to noteworthy existing charitable entities and provides scholarships to students.
There is an alarming amount of political enmity these days in regards to rich people which bothers me a great deal. The attitude seems to be that because these people are rich, they "owe" their wealth to the poor in such a way that they should be taxed beyond reason and nearly disdained for being wealthy. The resulting belief is that all rich people are greedy, money-mongers out to squash the poor and sit in their baths eating bon-bons while the rest of us starve to death. This is a dangerous generalization as it creates an unrealistic image marring the vast numbers of wealthy people who are compassionately others-minded and puts upon one subset of society the blame of an entire nation of issues. There is as much danger in making wealthy people the enemy and punishing them for their money as there is in believing all poor people are lazy drug addicts and derelicts of society only good enough for eradication or sectioning off into ghettos.
In my church and in my own family and community, there are people who are considered wealthy, by no means the Carnegies or Warners of the world, but certainly well off. All of these people donate up to twenty percent or more to their local churches, charities, and educational institutions. Many such middling wealthy people, as do the exorbitantly wealthy ones, have businesses which create jobs for thousands and millions of people. Last summer I attended a free St. Louis Symphony concert in Forest Park which was followed by an awe-inspiring display of fireworks. In the two years I have lived in St. Louis, I have been too poor to afford seeing the St. Louis Symphony play in their concert hall unless a friend paid for my ticket, but because of a local wealthy woman's generous support, the symphony played this free concert and poor people like myself were inordinately blessed by the experience.
While I dream like most people, that I would someday be rich enough to create a foundation and spend my days in large scale philanthropic giving, I appreciate that there are such wealthy people in the world. In the meantime, even in my poor state, I try to live as if I were rich, because compared to the children living in trash heaps in the Philippines, or the women forced into prostitution by their poverty, I am a Carnegie of the world. I have the opportunity to change someone's life and instead of looking around for someone to blame for my lack of wealth, I can look to someone else's poverty and choose to alleviate their pain.
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