I have begun reading a book about the Rockefeller family. I don’t know if I will finish, but it is easy to read.
I have noticed how the authors have accepted all the modern socialist mantras about the greed and corruption of the rich. They focus only on how much money the industrialists made. They have yet to point out how their efforts provided millions of good jobs and at the same time lowered the cost of living for millions of working people while improving the quality of that life. All they can see if the wealth accumulated.
I have noticed the parallels between the actions of John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates. Both were fiercely competitive. Both drove competitors out of business and took over a large part of the market. Both provided a product that moved society forward and put better living within the grasp of the masses. Both were vilified for their success and methods. Both turned to philanthropy to redeem themselves.
We owe a lot to men like them. The elites of the academic world have succeeded in labeling them as “robber barons”. Historically the true robber barons were local lords who controlled a section of river and would rob people passing by either with armed force or tolls backed by armed force. They gave nothing in return. All they did was take. The result was a decrease in mobility and increased poverty for everyone else.
In contrast to that the modern “robber barons” have increased the choices and options available to the masses. They have lowered the cost of items that were once luxuries and put them within the reach of the common man. An obvious example is the way in which Henry Ford lowered the cost of automobiles so that every working man could afford one. Thus a working class father had more options of employment. He now could work twenty miles away instead of within walking distance. He could live in a pleasant neighborhood instead of next to the factory in crowded apartments. Ford brought freedom to the downtrodden. And he got rich in the process.
It is interesting that the socialists of today want to reverse the march of progress and put us back on shoe leather and busses.
Collier, Peter and Horowitz, David. The Rockefellers, an American Dynasty.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976.
homo unius libri
Being from West Virginia, with it's mine wars, I'm less kind in my attitude toward the "robber barons," though you have some valid points.
ReplyDeleteI have read about those a bit. There were similar instances out west. Bill Gates never had anyone shot that I know of but he destroyed many lives in his quest for dominance. I wonder how history will treat the modern sweat shops using illegal aliens in what amounts to slave labor. Both sides of the issue need to be brought out. Maybe we can keep it from happening again.
DeleteGrace and peace