" (53) Carnegie goes on to repudiate the first and last modes of spending one's massive fortune, noting that he is not speaking of a small and modest wealth associated with many years of saving and toil he is talking about grand scale wealth that amount to more than a family could ever spend in a lifetime. Giving all your money to your descendants he claims is foolhardy because they will likely squander it because they do not likely possess the skill to earn it on their own and if they do they will do so. Additionally, doing everything you can to spend it in your lifetime on trifles is foolhardy as it will only benefit your family and the few merchants you buy goods from. His suggestion is then to offer the bulk of...

f your wealth, once your family is modestly secure, to charities that will serve the masses so that from this bequest those who have the skills to better society (the skillful managers of massive scale) will be offered the opportunity to rise up and repeat the cycle and again better society in the next generation.
"This, then, is held to be the duty of the man of wealth: To set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and, after doing so, to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer, and strictly bound as a matter of duty