The legacy of Andrew Carnegie
Posted by Christie Malry on October 26, 2010 at 10:03 am
Via a tweet by Bobchinski, I'm led to this very fine article on the legacy of Andrew Carnegie:
Carnegie is reckoned to be the 2nd wealthiest man in the world ever, when adjusted to todays money, most of which he gave away. My ears pricked up because his life is the story of a poor working class Scottish boy who travelled to America and did well for himself.
It's the giving it all away bit that I wanted to focus on. I live not that far from a Carnegie library, a gift from Carnegie to the people because he wanted them to be better educated. Unlike today's "progressive" society, which thinks it sufficient to gouge working people for vast amounts of their money so it can hand it over to the unworking poor, Carnegie's way required the poor to study their own way to economic prosperity.
Some 100 years later, you might expect Carnegie's gifts to be cherished and valued, a golden legacy that we have built upon. Oh no. My Carnegie library is falling down, stuck next to a main road and never renovated. It's basically falling down, and the local (Labour, of course) council has refused to make the necessary repairs. It may be Grade 2 listed, but it's got bloody great big holes in the plasterwork and rot on the inside. It's absolutely disgusting.
Part of me wishes that Carnegie could have seen the disregard with which we have treated his legacy, and that he might have decided to keep his money to himself. He'd have been thought a capitalist bastard, for sure, but his gift to our area has been totally squandered, in only a few generations. It's enough to make you weep.
Perhaps one day someone will buy the library and turn it into a museum warning against the dangers of socialism. It could be a living tomb to alert people that it's not money that keeps people in poverty, it's a lack of education and ambition. Meantime, the message to wannabe Carnegies is clear - we don't want your stupid libraries. Just give us your money so we can hand it in great big bagfuls to the poor, and don't get any uppity ideas about capping their benefits at £25k a year; only unlimited sums will do!
Until I read David Nasaw's biography of Carnegie I knew little about him. He emigrated to school and came from a poor family. In business he was utterly ruthless. Very close to his mother - so close in fact that he does not appear to have felt able to get married until she died.
Having made vast amounts of money he then gave pretty much all of it away!
Very interesting man.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bobski, Christie Malry. Christie Malry said: New blog post: The legacy of Andrew Carnegie http://bit.ly/ay4Zlo [...]