.....died on this day in 1919
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1. Andrew Carnegie, (born November 25, 1835, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland—died August 11, 1919, Lenox, Massachusetts, U.S.), Scottish-born American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the most important philanthropists of his era.
Britannica.com
2. I had occasion to visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and visited his grave. Not a great pyramid....not even a mausoleum....
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Reminded me of Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": "
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."
3. Socialism is on the front burner these days. Carnegie addressed it.
How much money should government take (coerce) from earners to give to dependents?
One of the richest men in our history did a calculation…
"Andrew Carnegie and the Socialist
Andrew Carnegie was once visited by a socialist who preached to him eloquently the injustice of one man possessing so much money. He preached a
more equitable distribution of wealth. Carnegie cut the matter short by asking his secretary for a generalized statement of his many possessions and holdings, at the same time looking up the figures on world population in his almanac. He figured for a moment on his desk pad and then instructed his secretary,
"Give this gentleman 16 cents. That's his share of my wealth."
Edmund Fuller, ed.,
Thesaurus of Anecdotes (Garden City, NY; Garden City Publishing Company, 1943)
4. " It was
the height of
the Gilded Age in 1889, and
Andrew Carnegie,
a pioneer in
the steel industry, laid out why he would be donating
the bulk of
his wealth – an estimated $350 million (worth about $4.8 billion today). ... That's
the reason
the Carnegie clan isn't on
the new Forbes list of America's Richest Families. "
It was the height of the Gilded Age in 1889, and Andrew Carnegie, a pioneer in the steel industry, laid out why he would be donating the bulk of his wealth to causes and not to his family members. His estimated $350 million net worth translates into $4.8 billion in today's dollars.
www.forbes.com
5. Progressives have figured out how to buy votes, with give-aways that they call ‘entitlements….but it will never be enough. Here’s why:
“Earned success is the secret to meaningful happiness. The government can improve your net worth with a check, but it cannot improve your self-worth.”
Jonah Goldberg