Bttt
Netflix had a series called The Men Who Built America, all about those men. I don’t think the term Robber Baron was used once. Instead, they showed how they were single minded men of their times.
I remember reading about John D. Rockefeller who made his fortune by illuminating America.
Kerosene was available only to the rich as it cost several dollars a gallon. Rockefeller began shipping it in rail car tankers instead of small barrels, bringing the cost to about $.50 a gallon, thus enabling every home and farmhouse across America to have some light in their home after 7pm.
It helped make him the richest man ever and improved the lives of millions.
Great post!
The money extorted from the public under the guise of “freedom” is distorting politics and personalities to this day. In the form of tax free foundations. These people moved their money to a place PURPOSELY FORMED to hide their wealth permanently, yet give the the power to influence all of life with it without spending a dime of it.
Robber Barons, a perfect word for them all. From Carnegie, through Soros, Gates and Paul Allen.
Don’t tell Gail Combs the ‘robber barons’ didn’t exist ...
Spoiler alert: Marxist historians.
The “robber barons” were value producers/creators. Giverment officials, politicians, and bureaucrats are value destroyers/usurpers.
YEAH! Discount all the endowments to Universities, the Arts, Libraries and civic improvements,fountains statues etc.. To say nothing of the jobs they provided. They don’t count or matter.
Those “Barons” gave back more to the citizenry than the government ever did by grabbing their taxes and wealth . JMHO!
I think he was referring to one of the many Congressmen who had been bought & paid for by the Trusts.
There were plenty of crooks too.
Mark Twain was interested in the return of his money.
Cornelius Vanderbilt and James J. Hill knew about railroad rate regulation.
Commies gonna Commie.
Bookmark
It is not either/or.
They were not entirely benevolent, nor entirely malevolent. And they were not exactly alike.
Humanity is fallen and sinful. The system we have is far from perfect, and allows much abuse of those with lesser power - but, as has been said, it is better than all the other systems.
There is certainly a difference between an actual wealth builder like Trump and a vulture capitalist like Romney.
Whatever one chooses to think about those of the past, I say we have some robber barons in the market today.
*
For example, just after Ulysses S. Grant was inaugurated as President, financiers Fisk and Gould engineered a gold squeeze that brought the US financial system into crisis and threatened the entire US economy. Today they would be prosecuted as market manipulators. The Grant administration was also marred by the Credit Mobilier scandal in which members of Congress were given bribes and interests in the railroads that they subsidized through land grants.
Rockafeller became immensely wealthy by consolidating ownership and gaining control of the US oil industry. He ruined competitors by sending thugs to blow up their wells, pipelines, and refineries, while railroads were induced to bar or overcharge competitors who relied on the rails.
Edison was clever and hard-working as an inventor, but he was greedy and dishonest as a businessman. He frequently cheated employees, business partners, and customers and abused the patent process to suppress rival inventions. Tesla began as an employee, was cheated by Edison, and then left to pursue his own inventions.
As academic economists point out, free markets depend on the rule of law, with contracts and regulations reliably enforced, and competition and innovation fostered and protected. Yet in the Robber Baron era, bribery and conflicts of interest were routine and normal, with police, prosecutors, judges, and legislators threatened and bribed to accommodate crooked business methods.
The public knew this and wanted it to change. That became one of the driving forces of the original Progressive movement. For many Americans, the attraction of socialism was not redistribution but as a critique and weapon against the corruption of the Robber Baron era. Pretending that there were no Robber Barons contradicts the facts of history and loses much of the argument by default.
You’re gouging on you prices if
You charge more than the rest.
But it’s unfair competition
If you think you can charge less.
“A second point that we would make
To help avoid confusion:
Don’t try to charge the same amount:
That would be collusion!
http://www.enterpriseintegrators.com/flint/4thR/TomSmithsIncredibleBreadMachinePoem.txt