The idea that wealth carries obligation is not new, not progressive, and not radical. It is older than any religion currently practiced, articulated independently by civilisations that never communicated with each other, and encoded in the legal structures of ancient Rome and the sacred texts of ancient Egypt alike. What Carnegie did in 1889 was not invent this idea. He repackaged it in the language of industrial capitalism and pointed it at the people who most needed to hear it. The man who dies rich dies disgraced. Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. The gods chained him to a rock for eternity. He is still, two and a half thousand years later, the word we use for someone who loves humanity enough to pay a price for it.