What is serving God? It is doing good to man - Benjamin Franklin

In my last blog, i tried to illustrate what life with options is like vs life without options. When you reach a certain stage where you are more than financially well off for the rest of your life, what do you do next? According to Andrew Carnegie, it is the obligation of the rich to share their wealth. Actually a more accurate statement for me would be that it is the obligation of the rich to share the wealth that is entrusted to them. Entrusted by whom? For me, it is said in Matthew 25:14-29.

Matthew 25:14-29
"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents saying 'Master, you entrusted give talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours' But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away."

As you can see, we really don't own anything in this world. Resources and wealth are only entrusted to us and at most, we just borrow them. As Benjamin Franklin would say, if your wealth was really yours, why don't you take it to the other side of the world with you?

If you believe as I believe, that the resources and wealth that we have access to belongs to a higher power and not to us, you may also believe as I do that we will be held accountable for what we do with it. I believe that the true owner of the world's wealth wants us to grow and maximize our wealth and more importantly not waste it. One of the best ways to waste wealth is to hold it just like the wicked lazy slave did. Imagine living in a small world where there are only 10 of you and you control 90% of the world's resources such as food supply and just held on to it for fear of losing it or simply for indulging in it. That is what most of the rich do with the wealth and resources they control, especially in poor nations. They don't find ways for their society to enjoy it so as a result, their society is impoverished. Because their society is impoverished, they sometimes complain and wonder why they live in an impoverished society.

Ofcourse, the wealthy cannot simply give out wealth and resources to the poor and must allocate it WISELY. Andrew Carnegie would say that it would be just as bad as not giving it in the first place since they probably won't use it properly and only waste it. Only a few in this world know how to allocate resources properly whereas many don't. For Andrew Carnegie, he believed that it's the people who amassed their own fortune in this world that is best fit and required to allocate resources to society. This makes sense since it is also the rich who controls a major portion of the resources in his (or her) society in the first place.

Anyway, this is just a matter of personal opinion that I'd like to share.