As a parent and a citizen, I'll take a Bill Gates (or Warren

The critic and thinker Eric Alterman spoke with sharp moral clarity when he declared: “As a parent and a citizen, I’ll take a Bill Gates (or Warren Buffett) over Steve Jobs every time. If we must have billionaires, better they should ignore Jobs’s example and instead embrace the morality and wisdom of the great industrialist-philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.” In this saying, he draws a line between two visions of wealth: one that dazzles with invention and power, and another that humbles itself in service to humanity. Alterman reminds us that if society must endure vast fortunes, let them at least be tempered by philanthropy, guided by morality, and crowned with wisdom.

The origin of this teaching lies in the long debate over the duty of the wealthy. The rise of titans like Jobs, Gates, and Buffett reignited an ancient question: is riches a private treasure to glorify oneself, or a sacred trust to uplift the many? Alterman holds up Andrew Carnegie as a model, the steel magnate who, though fierce in business, spent his latter years pouring his fortune into libraries, schools, and institutions of learning. Carnegie himself once wrote, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced.” In this legacy, Alterman finds a path where wealth is redeemed by generosity.

History bears witness to the power of such philanthropy. Consider the thousands of Carnegie libraries that sprang up across America and beyond, giving to the poor and humble the same treasures of knowledge once reserved for the few. From these libraries came students, dreamers, and leaders who might otherwise have been starved of opportunity. Here was wealth transfigured into blessing, riches transformed into lasting legacy. In contrast, fortunes hoarded or spent only on glory vanish with the man who held them.

The ancients, too, wrestled with this truth. The Stoics warned that wealth is indifferent—it is the use of it that makes it virtue or vice. The prophets thundered that to hoard riches while the poor starve is an abomination before God. And the early Christians taught that those given much bear greater responsibility. Thus, Alterman’s cry is not new, but the echo of eternal wisdom: wealth unguided by morality is corruption, but wealth yoked to wisdom becomes salvation for many.

Therefore, O children of the future, do not measure greatness by the glitter of devices or the force of markets alone. Measure it by the morality of the one who holds power, by the philanthropy that follows abundance, by the wisdom that turns private riches into public good. For inventors may dazzle, and merchants may conquer, but the true legacy of a life of wealth is not in empire, but in the lives uplifted by its generosity. Let this be your standard: to die not with riches in hand, but with blessings sown across the earth.