He may have been the richest man in the world – but even so, I felt I owed him one, and so we visited the humble home in which he was born nearly 200 years ago.
I’m talking about the American industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, who made his fortune through steel and railroads in the late 19th century. He was seriously rich, around $309 billion by today’s standards. “The way to become rich,” he advised, “is to put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.”
What makes this mega-rich man truly remarkable is that in the last 18 years of his life (he died in 1919) he gave 95% of his fortune away, and I am one of his beneficiaries.
Books were expensive in the 1950’s, and nearly all were hardback. It took me ten weeks to save up to buy “Five Get into Trouble.” It was 7s 6d, I recall with a heavy heart. As an avid reader, the only way I could access books was by going to the Carnegie library in College Road, a splendid building which I knew intimately. In fact, Carnegie endowed around 3000 public libraries.
The very first Carnegie library was in his home town of Dunfermline, from where he emigrated in 1848 at the age of 12. And he did his birth town proud. Even today you cannot but be impressed by the 76 acre Pittencrieff Park given to the city by Carnegie.
We were there, in Scotland’s ancient capital, during a break from the Edinburgh festival, just 20 miles on the other side of the Firth of Forth. As we headed for the Dunfermline abbey, we passed the sign indicating the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie.
The word “FREE” caught my eye – and so we decided to pay a visit to this simple weaver’s cottage, with a well-designed visitors centre to the side. Fascinating, how he made his fortune and how he gave it away.
There was much prominence given to his quote: “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” What was strange was that very morning I had read in the New York Times that since 2020, the richest 1% (of the world’s population) has captured nearly two-thirds of all new wealth globally — almost twice as much money as the rest of the world’s population.
The article goes on to say that at the beginning of last year, it was estimated that just 10 men (and they are men) possessed six times as much wealth as the poorest three billion people on earth.
And it’s not getting any better. Even in the last year income inequality in our own country has increased, mainly driven by a reduction in disposable income in the fifth poorest households.
Today, the five richest families in the UK are wealthier than the bottom 20% of the entire population. That’s just five households with more money than 12.6 million people – almost the same as the number of people living below the poverty line
In other words, some people are extremely rich while many of their fellow citizens struggle. We live in a world of luxury cruises and food banks.
For those who are rich, clearly Carnegie – a Presbyterian – shows the way. Great wealth spells out great responsibility. But there is a sense, now recognised by many in public life, that somehow our system is wrong with a clear bias to the rich.
Canadian theologian Ashley Hibbard has a passion for the book of Deuteronomy. And over the last two weeks I have been reading her commentary on this often-neglected Old Testament book.
For many of us Deuteronomy is just an unending list of laws, some we find strange and applicable for a different era. Others we can readily understand and obey, for they reveal the values of God himself.
What comes across time and time again – as we saw a few weeks ago – is God’s care for the alien, the widow and the orphan: “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:17f)
One of the ways in which God executes justice for the poor are the laws for the sabbatical year. “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.” (Deuteronomy 15:1) Yes, every seven years you are to write off any debts owing to you.
And be sure you don’t try to work the system. “Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing.” (Deuteronomy 15:9)
Hibbard writes: “God required his people to have strict limits to human indebtedness, the flip side of which is unlimited generosity. We have no reason to believe that Israel ever functioned this way, and no one has ever figured out how it might have worked practically. But perhaps that’s the lesson, that God's economy is not limited by human practicality.”
It does seem inevitable, that for an open society income and wealth inequality is inevitable. But as individuals we have the responsibility to follow God’s care for the weak, the poor. The answer is not so much changing the system as changing our hearts.
And here is the challenge for all disciples of Jesus: “ If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour.
“You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. (Deuteronomy 15:7).
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