{"id":25626,"date":"2020-01-29T22:02:35","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T06:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25626"},"modified":"2020-01-29T22:02:35","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T06:02:35","slug":"philanthropy-does-it-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/philanthropy-does-it-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Philanthropy does it work?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Weber a German sociologist and political economist in his book The Protestant Ethic and the \u201cSpirit\u201d of Capitalism<\/em> was looking into the foundational ideas that created the perfect storm for Capitalism to thrive. To Weber these ideas came from Protestantism, specifically from Luther\u2019s concept of calling and Calvinism\u2019s view of Predestination.[1]<\/a> Weber noticed a relationship between people involved in Protestantism and their activity in business. Due to this observation Weber turned toward the Protestant work ethic to see if there could be a connection to Capitalism.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

On November 20, 1935 a Scottish- American industrialist was born, Andrew Carnegie. Over His lifetime he became a rich philanthropist in the U.S and Britain and gave away around 90% of his wealth which was valued at approximately $350 million in the early 1900\u2019s. In today\u2019s value according the GDP that value would be around $65 billion. His donations went to libraries, museums, scientific research, education and world peace efforts.[3]<\/a> According to other sources, at his peak he was worth $310 Billion in today\u2019s monitory value and his remaining $30 million was given away after his death.[4]<\/a> How does a person of such great wealth become such a philanthropist? To what does he owe this shift in mind set to?<\/p>\n

The pivotal point for Him seems to be in 1889 when he wrote an essay entitled the Gospel of Wealth<\/em>. His opening line stated, \u201cThe problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and the poor in harmonious relationships.\u201d[5]<\/a> A simple summary of Carnegie\u2019s complex essay could be summarized as follows. He recognized the changes of wealth in society over the past centuries before his life and to him this was obvious due to the housing discrepancy between the wealthy and the working class. Though this concerned him he viewed it as better than everyone living in \u201cuniversal squalor.\u201d It is obvious that Carnegie embraced capitalism and felt that individualism and the ability to accumulate wealth was in the best interest of the whole. The concern for him then became that since wealth was assigned to the few and not the whole how should one\u2019s wealth be distributed to those without it? For him there appeared only three solutions. Give all one\u2019s money away upon one\u2019s death which he felt limited an individual\u2019s ability to do good in the world. It could be left as an inheritance to one\u2019s children but, that was no better than a curse and is a form of misguided affection. To him the only honorable way was to disburse it in a way for all of society to appreciate it which he felt was better than giving it in small amounts over a long period of time to individuals\u2019 who would most likely squander it on personal desires. The wealthy should avoid extravagant lifestyles and great shows of wealth.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

The distribution of wealth to Carnegie required great wisdom since an \u201cindiscriminate\u201d form of charity could be damaging to those who received it. To Carnegie this method would allow the \u201claws of accumulation\u201d and the \u201claws of distribution\u201d to stay in place and the rich would be called upon to be trustees of the poor.[7]<\/a> With this in mind Andrew Carnegie believed \u201cA man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.\u201d[8]<\/a> It appears Max Weber didn\u2019t consider this method worthy of consideration. When asked about the a \u201chigh regard for money\u201d and the \u201csense of duty\u201d of the wealthy he responded that this \u201cpsychic phenomena from Moliere\u2019s Avare to Carnegie\u201d was \u201cbased on fundamental errors.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Though the philosophy of Andrew Carnegie isn\u2019t flawless by any means, it is admirable that a man of such wealth took the time to assess the fact that life isn\u2019t often fair and those with great wealth had a responsibility to live modestly and distribute their wealth to benefit society. Does this form of philanthropy really benefit those in need? How has the Spirit of Capitalism affected philanthropy? What drives philanthropy? Guilt? Does Carnegies style of philanthropy actual assist the poor?<\/p>\n

Philanthropy is an important source of income for many charitable organizations. How affective is it? Though there are some obvious positive aspects of donating large sums of money to charity there is also a dark side. \u201cThe eighty-five richest people in the world together own more than a trillion dollars in wealth, according to Oxfam. Many of them use that wealth in ways that keep current power structures in place\u2014for instance, by supporting political candidates who prefer lower taxes for the rich and smaller government spending on social programs\u2014which ultimately hurt the poor.\u201d[10]<\/a> I don\u2019t think Andrew Carnegie had these type of political aspirations in mind \u00a0when he wrote The Gospel of Wealth<\/em> but he was aware of some of the challenges that Philanthropist\u2019s may face; \u201cof every thousand dollars spent in so-called charity today, it is probable that nine hundred and fifty dollars is unwisely spent: so spent, indeed as to produce the very evils which it hopes to mitigate or cure.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Max Weber. The Protestant Ethic and the \u201cSpirit\u201d of Capitalism<\/em>. New York: Penguin Books. 2002. 32-33<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.sparknotes.com\/philosophy\/protestantethic\/summmary\/<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikpedia.org\/wiki\/Andrew_Carnegie<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Brian Warner. The top 25 Richest People Who Ever Lived \u2013 Inflation Adjusted.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.celbritynetworth.com\/articles\/entertainment-article\/25-richest-peopel-alive-inflaation-adjsuted\/<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Andrew Carnigie, The Gospel of Wealth, and Other Timely Essays. <\/em>New York: The Century Company. 1900. 1<\/p>\n

https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/cu3192400121\/mode\/2up<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Andrew Carnegie. 3-15<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Andrew Carnegie.18<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Andrew Carnegie.19<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Max Weber. 227<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/business\/currency\/was-carnegie-right-about-philantthropy<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Andrew Carnegie. 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Weber a German sociologist and political economist in his book The Protestant Ethic and the \u201cSpirit\u201d of Capitalism was looking into the foundational ideas that created the perfect storm for Capitalism to thrive. To Weber these ideas came from Protestantism, specifically from Luther\u2019s concept of calling and Calvinism\u2019s view of Predestination.[1] Weber noticed a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1602,386,814],"class_list":["post-25626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp10","tag-max-weber","tag-protestant-work-ethic","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25627,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626\/revisions\/25627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}