Are corporations once again picking up the slack?

Although the industrial age has historically been considered a major contributor to poverty, and thus, an increase in the need for charity, a number of industrialists such as Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie considered it their responsibility to address these concerns. Ford made new inroads to the hiring, treatment and accommodation of those in need—or charity, as it was viewed in that day. He designed a third of his factory jobs specifically for the disabled so that they could make a living wage. Ford's view of poverty was to “fix the train tracks first” and then help people help themselves.*

Andrew Carnegie believed it wrong to die rich, and purposed to live within a set means and endeavored to give away the balance of his income for the rest of his life. Both men are considered founders of the modern philanthropic movement. From this point onward we see a growing philosophy for a corporate, or central, responsibility for society rather than the local community or the church. General welfare, once supplied via the church, was hereafter seen as the duty of agencies, corporations, and governments—and funded primarily through taxation.

I believe we are once again seeing more so-called "one-percenters" becoming more personally responsible for those around them as were Ford and Carnegie.

*Guinness, Os. Doing Well and Doing Good: Money, Giving and Caring in a Free Society. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001, 232.