Andrew Carnegie died 100 years ago today. He's been on my mind a lot recently as the house we bought is in a town named after him. More than a lot of other robber barons he prefigures the ideas of Good Billionaires and philanthropy. He wrote the foundational text of those ideas.

Carnegie made his money on the backs of workers, very often overworked and underpaid. He talked up how much he supported unions and then violently suppressed them. He wrote The Gospel Of Wealth to frame the widespread exploitation of workers as ethical, admirable even.

He built a bunch of libraries with his absolutely mind boggling riches($310 billion in modern dollars!) so his legacy would be one of charity. Czar Nicolas II was worth less than that.

Carnegie didn't just find more money than god has just laying around. He didn't have some #1 jam of the summer that people suddenly bought a zillion copies of. That money was gained through being a boss on a cosmic scale. That money belonged to the folks working his companies.

The myth of Carnegie and other Good Billionaires is that they got their wealth through hard work and determination, and it's really just very nice of them to give some of it back. But it's just theft from their workers, put to the uses of one individual- the boss.

Carnegie supported unions but, you know, not in Homestead. Carnegie thought inequality was bad but, you know, not enough to look at how he individually was a massive creator of it. He built libraries but demanded 12 hour workdays. Not a lot of reading time left for his employees.

Anyway fuck that guy. That's my take on the situation. 100 years ago today. Good riddance.

Oh God there's so much I didn't go into in this thread, not least of which was the Johnstown Flood. https://twitter.com/BBolander/status/1160573996301242372?s=19