India, May 10 -- The case is styled Musk v. Altman et al., though that caption somewhat undersells its ambitions.

In 1889, Andrew Carnegie published what he called "The Gospel of Wealth", an essay arguing that the rich had a moral obligation to distribute their fortunes for the public good. The argument was sincere. Carnegie went on to endow libraries, universities, and foundations, giving away, by his own accounting, roughly 90 per cent of what he had accumulated. What is less often remembered is that Carnegie never quite stopped giving instructions alongside the money. He wrote letters. He sat with the trustees. He shared his views at length on how the endowments should be deployed. The boundary between philanthropist and proprietor, i...