Question

"When the gentlemen came into his office collecting for the needy, Scrooge responded:

A. He supported the prisons and workhouses where they could go, or they could die and decrease the surplus population.
B. The poor and the needy have never done anything for him.
C. his money prevented him from living in poverty because he didn't give it away.
D. If the poor would work hard, they wouldn't need charity."

Answer 1

Scrooge's response was that he supported the systemic solutions of the day and suggested that the poor could die to reduce the surplus population, reflecting the social Darwinism perspective of the 19th-century versus the philanthropic approach of figures like Andrew Carnegie.

Step-by-step explanation:

When the gentlemen came into his office collecting for the needy, Scrooge responded by saying that he supported the prisons and workhouses where they could go, or they could die and decrease the surplus population. This reflects the harsh views of some 19th-century thinkers who believed in a form of social Darwinism, which suggested that helping the poor was futile because they were deemed unfit in the competition of life.

On the opposite spectrum were those who believed in assisting the poor through charity and societal support, hoping to create a lasting positive impact on society as emphasized by Andrew Carnegie in The Gospel of Wealth.