Also, as is widely acknowledged, union bosses were in no way responsible for any violence or wrongdoing. It's all so obvious and one-sided in retrospect, you know.
Look, on the way from a nepotist aristocracy to creating a prosperous middle class you don't get it right the first time. Shit gets fucked up, and yes lots of people do bad things along the way. It's trivially easy to look back and point out how they only got it 30% right and ignore the fact that everyone before them got it 10% right.
The truth is, both are possible. I am baffled as to how either of you thinks the question can be answered without looking at the specific history and the specific choices Carnegie made and deciding whether he was willfully destroying lives.
I think Carnegie was kind of a jerk, but if he hadn't done it, some other jerk probably would have. I try not to spend too much of my life casting moral judgements on others, so I'm still not quite how sure that shakes out.
Anyway, he loved to write about America and particularly Carnegie. So through formatting his book I learned a lot about Carnegie -- the guy came from nothing, and he was truly active. Check this out: http://bit.ly/fDMBd9
Carnegie stepped on a lot of heads on his way up. [2]
1: There was so much soot in the air, your shirt would be dirty by midday, so blue-collar workers brought spares and changed.
2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike