We have no disposition to say anything about Andrew Carnegie's munificent benefactions. On the one hand there is nothing in this philanthropic spree of a modern Dives to call for commendation; and on the other, the expenditure by any man of what society concedes to be his own fortune, is a private matter outside the pale of criticism.
It is only when the question of how a millionaire ought to use his wealth is brought forward in connection with these charitable performances that the subject becomes one of public concern. Then it is of public concern only to the extent of justifying the retort that it is nobody's business but his own how any millionaire uses his wealth, provided he does not use it prejudicially to the rights of others.
The vital question is not how millionaires use their wealth, but how they get it. Not how they did get it, for what has happened has happened, and by-gones should be by-gones; but how they are getting it now.
Have they a hoard of goods formerly accumulated, from which they draw? Then their getting it hurts nobody.
Do they earn it as they go along? Then their getting it benefits everybody.
Or do they merely possess legal authority to levy continually upon the common earnings for their own enrichment? Then their getting it is a present and continuing wrong, which is of incalculable public concern.
-- From "The Public," March 23, 1901
One might be led to ask whether the FIRE sector is levying upon the earnings of the larger community a toll they don't actually rightly earn.
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