Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates: Philanthropy and oligarchy, then and now.

This article discusses the work of three large foundations (Bill and Melinda Gates, Walton Family, and Eli and Edyth Broad) in their mission to reform public education. These three foundations have diverse interests, and without a doubt they do good work in many fields. However, my late wife and I were interested in their work in public education. My comments here are restricted to what I know of their work in public education. I use two of Andrew Carnegie’s philanthropic projects in a compare-and-contrast exercise. In this essay, I compare and contrast the early philanthropic effort of Andrew Carnegie to the philanthropy practiced by Gates and similar foundations today. At least in the field of public education, philanthropy has gone beyond simply doing good to an unrestrained effort to undo a vital social institution—public education—and thus undercut our basic democracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: American Journal of Orthopsychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research