Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America

by Jane Borden

Carnegie and others saw an important distinction between philanthropy and charity, though. It’s one thing to build a hospital. But giving directly to the poor would only “teach the hard-working, industrious man that there is an easier path.” None of the $125 million he gave away between 1887 and 1907 went to direct relief because, Carnegie believed, “every drunken vagabond or lazy idler supported by alms bestowed by wealthy people is a source of moral infection to a neighborhood.”50 Church leaders mostly agreed. Beecher said, “Looking comprehensively… no man in this land suffers from poverty unless it be more than his fault—unless it be his sin.”51 Wyllie’s research turned up a handful of extreme views, including from one leader who wanted to abolish almshouses altogether and instead send missionaries to tell the needy that God had decreed only those who work get to eat. Another advocated systematic starvation of the impoverished since they had deliberately chosen poverty and therefore should be allowed to suffer its natural consequences.