Andrew Carnegie And Eugene V Debs example essay topic

In America there has always been differing attitudes towards wealth and the wealthy. People looked upon the wealthy of America with such varying views as envy, disgust, and admiration. Three such people were Andrew Carnegie, Horatio Alger, and Eugene V. Debs. Andrew Carnegie believed the rich had a duty to give back to the world. Horatio Alger wrote that wealth was achieved by virtue, honesty, and industry. Eugene V. Debs had a vehement opposition to the capitalist system and believed that everyone should be an equal, economically as well as politically.

Andrew Carnegie thought that the rich had a duty to give back to the world. His tale was a rags-to-riches story which gave hope to poverty stricken Americans. He was born into a poor family and secured a job at a train station as a young boy. His own initiative took him up the economic ladder until he was the owner of U.S. Steel, the largest steel manufacturer in America.

He secured a vertical monopoly on the production of steel and his wealth amassed to hundreds of millions of dollars. This figure, accounting for inflation, translates into tens of billions in today's currency. Carnegie, at an age of about 50 sold U.S. Steel to J.P. Morgan. Carnegie's personal belief was that a man should spend the first part of his life accumulating wealth, and the second part of his life giving it away. His actions for the latter part of his life followed these ideas. In total, he gave hundreds of millions away to various charities.

He is most well known for the public libraries he established with this money. He wanted to give the masses of America every chance to become educated so that they too could become rich. Andrew Carnegie was a firm believer in free enterprise and capitalism. He also believed that the wealthy should give back to society, as he demonstrated through his charitable giving.

Horatio Alger was a writer that believed a person could become rich by his or her own virtue, honesty, and industry. He was born into a middle class family to a minister and was extremely intelligent. He began writing novels, many of which focused on a rags-to-riches theme. He would start a book with a poor pitiful character who through doing some brave action, or working diligently, would get a break to get a well-respected job. His novels sold more than 100 million copies. In these stories he was almost writing an autobiography in disguise.

He started life as a sickly child and ended it one of the most famous and rich writers of his time. He not only believed in, but also lived the American Dream - that you always have opportunities to better yourself economically and socially, and that the way to accomplish this was through hard work and honesty. He believed wealth therefore was well deserved by the people that possessed it. Eugene V. Debs' view on the wealth in America was a much more pessimistic view of capitalism and a greater thirst for change.

Eugene V. Debs was the leader of American Railway Union and the Socialist Party in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He believed in the rights of the worker, and the rights of the common man. He thought that the wealth in the nation should be shared. Debs saw that for the most part the rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. He thought it was unfair that a small percentage of Americans controlled the majority of the wealth in the country. He fought throughout his life to change this injustice.

Eugene V. Debs led the Pullman Palace Car strike, striving to better the conditions of workers for the Chicago railroad company after they had their wages sliced by one-third. He was known as a hero of the laborer. He announced that he was a Socialist and formed the Socialist Party in the United States. He was nominated for presidential elections several times and received 6% of the popular vote even though he was imprisoned. The Socialist Party, under Debs' leadership, made such significant gains during these years that they believed within several more years they might even put a president in the White House. Eugene V. Debs believed in distributing the wealth of the country equally and in the rights of the worker.

People possessed many different views on the wealth in America during this time. Horatio Alger, Andrew Carnegie, and Eugene V. Debs were three such people who had very strong views. These views ranged from such starry-eyed dreams of the possibilities capitalism offered, to bitterness at the system and a desire for radical change.