The Growth Of Big Business Vs Economic Inequality

The Growth of Big Business vs Economic Inequality Student Name Institution Course Professor Date The Growth of Big Business vs Economic Inequality The Gilded Age saw the American economy reshaped by industrialists like Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, who amassed wealth in a way never before seen. These men were involved in driving the United States into an industrial world power with the help of railroads, steel, and oil (Chang, 2023). Their fortunes, however, aroused a very strong public debate. The existence of a few people with such a lavish wealth as millions of workers lived in poverty brought many questions to the Americans. In their self-defense, these business magnates formulated moral and economic excuses for their wealth, as they usually said that their achievement benefited the people in the end. Among the most highly persuasive arguments was that of Andrew Carnegie, who believed that extreme wealth was not solely abhorrent in itself but that when wielded carefully, it was a good thing. According to his philosophy, or what was later dubbed the Gospel of Wealth, Carnegie stated that the rich were only the custodians of their wealth, and it was their moral responsibility to invest their wealth back in society. According to Carnegie, the best way to thrive in social situations was through philanthropy and not the government. Janowski (2020) argues that the ideas of Carnegie influenced the formation of the initial notions of corporate social responsibility, a...