The following is a total word for word quote of Chapter 17, from “I Hold These Truths,” which I began writing in 1986, when I got my first computer. It was crude, but I discovered that I could write, which I had been doing for a long time anyway, but save it for future use without having to print it, and having instant access to it Wow! For three years, 31 years ago, I wrote my opinions on everything I could think of, and put it in a book which I had printed in 2000. There are 355 pages and 89 chapters. It’s been through several printings since, and has sold maybe 7,000 copies. I never had an agent or advertised it in any way, and I haven’t changed my mind about anything in it. The entire chapter follows, titled “What’s Wrong With Being Rich?”
“It is very chic now to hate wealthy people, and condemn the old, long dead, super rich, such as the Vanderbilts and Carnegies. It is supposed to be some sort of sin for those people to have had such gigantic mansions, servants, boats, and private railroad cars. I happen to think it was a wonderful time in American history, and one to be cherished, not scorned. Those rich men weren’t stingy by any means. They did wonderful things with their money.
“Andrew Carnegie built hundreds of libraries, giving them freely to large cities and small towns alike. Few American cities or towns fail to have a Carnegie Library. Phoenix Arizona has one, as does tiny Silverton Colorado, population 500. Carnegie loved the sound of the pipe organ, and he gave away 6,000 of them to various churches, auditoriums and halls.
“Remember, those rich people got that way by discovering or inventing something, being there first with a good idea, or in some way being an excellent entrepreneur. There were no equalizing taxes then, and when those super rich men built their mansions and railroads, they furnished employment. It took skilled craftsmen to build those edifices. Millions of jobs were provided by the super rich, which unfortunately do not exist any longer, thanks to government’s successful of leveling everyone. There are a few left who are living of the old man’s legacy, but the wealth has been successfully destroyed by government.
“While there are those that complain of the so-called ‘sweat shops,’ and child labor in early America, we were still far above any other place in the world. While America was working employees twelve hours a day, in other parts of the world, workers were working fourteen or sixteen hours and for lower wages. The industrial revolution and unions took care of that, as a natural way for men to invent, invest, and group together for a common cause. Nowhere in the world have more homes been built and owned than in America. It was thanks to those pioneers who got filthy rich, but at the same time raised our entire standard of living.
“If the old Commodore had hundreds of servants, those servants had good jobs. If the Astors had a huge mansion, it took lots of people to build it and maintain it for them. The problem is that we resent other people having more than we do, whereas it is far healthier to admire them, and even wish we had more, but certainly not to hate someone else for having more than you. Hatred of those with more, or condemnation of those more successful, is far too common today. Work and improve yourself, don’t waste your energy hating others.
“I look at those fantastic mansions, see photos of those grand life-styles, and am amazed, not full of animosity. I wish we still had those times with us. I’d rather work for a benevolent Carnegie, than for a greedy, insatiable government which taxes us into poverty. Those rich tycoons didn’t lower our living standards, but raised them with jobs and prosperity. Government has robbed everyone, virtually destroyed entrepreneurship, and continually lowers our living standard.”
In 2017, please do not compare Bill Gates and his ilk, thinking they have wealth equal to the Carnegies, Vanderbilts, and Rockefellers. In today’s inflated dollars, it is estimated that Carnegie had a net worth of thirty trillion dollars, an amount impossible to even imagine today. There was no income tax then. Carnegie started U.S. Steel, endowed Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Carnegie endowment for World Peace, built 2800 libraries and Carnegie Hall in New York. Vanderbilt built the New York Central Railroad, and Rockefeller started Standard Oil. There was no welfare then. Jobs were created, and people weren’t paid not to work, given food stamps and handouts by the hundreds. There was no welfare created under-class, with abandoned neighborhoods, graffiti, violence, and crime seemingly without end. Sane people today get out of big cities and move to small towns, and for good reason.
Don Stott -1-888-786-8822