Luck Run Amok—Part 9

Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%

One explanation for why income and wealth are so highly skewed in the United States is succinctly summarized by the wonderful title of a 2011 Vanity Fair article by economics Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz:

Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%

Many believe in the trickle-down theory that enriching the rich makes everyone better off. When Andrew Carnegie immigrated to Pennsylvania from Scotland as a 13-year-old in 1848, he began working 12-hour shifts as a bobbin boy in a textile mill, replacing full wooden spools of thread with empty spools. (No child labor laws back then!)

He didn’t go to school but, between the ages of 13 and 18, he was able to educate himself because a retired businessman, Colonel James Anderson, allowed local “working boys” to borrow books—one at a time—from his private collection. Carnegie vowed that if he became rich he would build free libraries so that more people could educate themselves and improve their lives. He kept that promise by funding 2,509 libraries, mostly in small U.S. towns. Coincidentally, Pomona College’s economics department is located in the Carnegie Building, which was originally a joint city/college library. (The evolution from library to academic building is too complicated to detail here.