The "Why of Using Your Wealth While You are Still Living (Part 1)

    After reading Carnegie’s essays, the question that no doubt comes to your mind is, “why should we have to give away all our wealth after spending years of hard work trying to acquire it?”

“We should we, after years of trials and tribulations, gains and losses, successes and failures, give all our money away and revert back to the life of poverty, or financial difficulty that we were trying to escape in the first place?”

There are lots of other questions relating to this doctrine, and in this chapter, I will attempt to clarify these matters once and for all.

First and foremost, you don’t have to give away all your wealth.  This is NOT a socialist, or a communist doctrine;  far from it.  In no circumstances do I believe that wealth should be taken away from the rich and redistributed to the poor.  I know that this will do a lot more harm than good.  

If wealth were to be taken from the rich, and here, I mean the productive rich, not the idle rich (I will get into that later in this essay), these people would have no financial tools to continue their businesses, and they would default.  This would result in a shortage of goods, making life more difficult for the rest of society.

As for the poor receiving this confiscated wealth, too little money would be distributed to too many people, leaving the poor with very little extra money in their hands.  They may use it to buy food or repair their homes, or even buy something that they desperately need, but in many cases, others would spend it on pleasures, such as drugs and alcohol, or lottery tickets.

Who really benefits from this commonly held belief?  Nobody, and that is a harsh reality many cannot seem to comprehend.

The second question, “are you encouraging those who are rich, but don’t own a company, to give up ALL their wealth?  What if they want to stash away a few million to buy a home in a luxurious setting and have plenty of money for financial security for the rest of their lives?!”

My answer is no, you do not have to give up all your wealth, or any of it, if you have no desire to do so.  You are very much entitled to your wealth.  You can spend your money on anything you like, and not have to feel guilty about it.  If you made this money honorably, or even inherited it, it’s your money and you can do whatever you like, and no one has the right to judge you for it, including this author.

All in all, I am against the confiscation of wealth and private property;  it all belongs to the owner.  The only exception to this would be where the wealth, and what it bought, was obtained fraudulently, but nothing else.

I have now clarified that, like Andrew Carnegie, I am an Individualist and a Capitalist.  I am NOT a Socialist;  never have been, never will be.

The doctrine, “The Gospel of Wealth” that Carnegie wrote back in 1889 didn’t go over with too many of the rich of that time, but it did state what needed to be said, and applies today more than it did back then, and for the same reasons.  When you observe our present economic state, and what this country, the United States, needs in its rebuilding, you will begin to see why.

Hoarding one’s wealth without using it in any way does nobody any good whatsoever, even to those who are hoarding the wealth.  

Much of the wealth many people obtained is either unearned, or is in the form of inflated salaries.  What we see are CEOs obtaining a salary literally hundreds of times greater than the workers, the backbone, of a company or corporation.  In these situations, and there are many, as inflation progresses, as it always has, these CEOs have raises over $50,000 or more, while the workers obtain a pittance, and are less able to keep up with inflation, thereby reducing their standards of living.  The CEOs then retire and receive a huge severance pay.

There are many young executives on Wall Street getting high six figure salaries simply for having an M.B.A.    CEOs of companies are getting overpaid and bankers are misappropriating money being deposited in these banks.  In the event of a crisis, such as the one that occurred in 2008, they got bailed out by the government in the form of a stimulus package.  These banks and insurance companies then gave out huge bonuses from that stimulus money that was originally meant to save these businesses.

This affects everyone, and a symptom of this crisis was that many homes are foreclosed and many businesses folded, as more and more people are lost their livelihoods.  True, we’re recovering, and employment is increasing, but we’re not out of the woods yet.

What is really bad is that in many businesses, the CEOs and other corporate heads are hoarding their money overseas in banks in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, just to avoid paying taxes in the U.S.  

As these businesses continue to make money, they hoard even more of it.  As of this writing, there is over $1.1 trillion of U.S. money in these banks.  This is just a known estimate.  How do we know that it isn’t much higher?!

These wealthy businessmen are hoarding money that they can’t even begin to spend, and are stashing away more of it all the time.  These are CEOs, wealthy business owners, bank presidents, company presidents, huge corporations, and the list goes gets longer every day.  

Does it matter?  Yes it does, because the taxes they would otherwise pay goes into the federal budget, paying for the services the American people receive, be it the fire and police, the military, the space program, highways, railroads, research and development, public schools, colleges and universities, and thousands of other programs.  Granted, billions of dollars get wasted every year, and that has to stop, but that is for another essay.  

If these individuals and companies and corporations are going to live and be based in the United States, they need to pay for the services provided for them, and that includes roads and protection by the police force.  If they are going to make money in the U.S., they need to pay their fair share of the taxes, like everybody else.

The taxes they would pay would hardly put a dent into their accounts.  They would never miss it.  The problem is greed, pure and simple.  They get money, and they want more money, and more, and they have to stash it somewhere safe.  Then they still want more, and all this is at the expense of the rest of the American people, by way of higher taxes, less public services due to cut backs, foreclosed homes, and closed businesses.

The questions I have for all these people, whether you are a CEO or just someone who inherited your money are, “what are you going to do with all that money?  You can’t even begin to spend it, no matter where you go.  You can’t take it with you when you die.”  

“Are you going to leave it to your children?  Are you going to spoil them?  Spoiling someone simply destroys them, they can’t help but to be that way.  If your children get all that money and they don’t have a skill with which they can use it in a constructive manner, they will bask in luxury, live an idle life, probably revert to drugs and alcohol, that will eventually lead them to the path to destruction.  Where will all that money go then?  Will your children squander it all away?”

Note:  I know there are exceptions where the owner of a business trains his son or daughter to succeed him and when he does, he uses his wealth and position to make the business even better.  In other cases, they will use the money in other constructive ways, creating new businesses of their own, to which I say, “more power to you.” 

One last topic that is in this category are the idle rich;  those who have a lot of money, but don’t do anything but be a part of the jet set.  They travel, go from one party, or function, to another and that’s it.

There are also Hollywood actors and actresses, especially the youth, who, as child actors earned literally millions, but, received too much too soon.  They party, cause trouble, get in trouble, and I don’t entirely blame it on them.  With all that money, they can live where they want and do what they want, and at their age, it is tempting to indulge in great pleasures.  If you were in the position they are in, wealth and fame at an early age, would you have fared any better?

I have now discussed every category, from the productive rich to the idle rich.  They have excess wealth with which they don’t know what to do with.  How are they going to handle it?

If they choose the option of living in idleness and pleasure for the rest of their lives, then their lives will be empty, and they will realize this on their deathbeds.  They will have full bank accounts but wasted lives, accomplishing nothing, and that is not a good feeling to have.  

Now that I have stated the issue, what can be done.  No, I am not suggesting “give away all your money, and your problems will go away.”

I am stating, “use your money for a constructive project so that everybody, being your community, your state, or your country (the U.S., being that this author is an American, and it is aimed at improving American society).  

The reason is that if you are living in idleness, you may be dissatisfied with your life (or you may not be).  I believe that we are all put on this Earth to accomplish a certain task, be it big or small.  I feel, and it is commonly stated, is that we should leave this world a better place than how we found it.  This means that you should do whatever you can to make this world better.  It can be any number of things:  write a book, plant a garden, build a bridge, build a home, clean up your community (I’m going to refrain from saying “the world” here), invent something useful, build anything that would make life better, from, let’s say a shelter for the homeless to a power plant that runs on alternative energy, and everything in between these two.  The list is endless, and there are literally an infinite number of problems that this world has in which they need to be dealt.  

Those who have excess wealth have a tool in which you can deal with them.  It can be anything you want.  Nobody is forcing you what problem to choose.  

You both can and should choose whatever problem interests you, and think up of a solution, or a way to deal with this problem.  What interests you?  Is it building roads and bridges?  Going out into space?  Cleaning up rivers and other waterways, or even the ocean?  Is it animals?  Homeless shelters for all who are homeless?  Is there a country you are interested in helping?  Do you just want to pay off a debt that your home state has?  How about paying off student loans for those who have already graduated but are struggling financially in their careers because of their debts?

Choose a problem, and help to deal with it, for the benefit of society.  Our country is in great financial trouble due to its own foolishness in handling its budget.  It is everybody’s fault for demanding more and more from the government in everything, and now we are paying for it with annual deficits and cumulative debt.  Because of this, we, being your town, city, state, and country are unable to fund badly needed projects and your help is needed.

This would also help you into having something to do, dedicating your life to something, and having a more fulfilling and rewarding life, and that is better than an empty life, which many people have.  You would also be a prominent person, being held in high esteem, and this is true even if have had a troubled past.  

If you can find a way to produce more money from whatever you choose, then do so, and put that money back into your project, whatever it may be.  

If you decide to take your hoarded wealth and live off it in idleness and pleasure for the rest of your life, chances are you will be destroyed by it, and so will your children.  A spoiled person will end up being destroyed.

Should you decide to use your excess wealth for a constructive purpose, one that will benefit your community, your state, and/or your country, you will not only help these, you will also help yourself.   

Since your community and country helped you, or your ancestor, obtain this wealth, and protected you from anyone else from taking it, you should give something back to the community/country, especially now, in it’s time of need.

I will end this essay with a quote the President John F. Kennedy gave at his inaugural:  “Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country!”

Alastair Browne