Posted on 04/01/2015 6:06:09 PM PDT by Kaslin
When asked who the Vice President of the United States is most people usually hesitate, smile and simply shake their head. To ask who the following men were the response would be almost incomprehensible but most assuredly laughable.
Jay Cooke
Daniel Drew
James Fish
Andrew Mellon
JP Morgan
Joseph Seligman
John Jacob Aster
Andrew Carnegie
Jay Gould
John D Rockefeller
Played for the Patriots. Had their own reality show. A ‘60’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Group. Many might answer.
Historical knowledge is not one of America’s strong suits. Allow me to educate.
They were 19th century businessmen who were tagged with the nickname Robber Barons. They could be found in all walks of life such as railroads, oil, steel, real estate and most significantly in finance (Wall Street and banking).
They amassed their millionaire wealth (in today’s dollars, billionaires) by exploiting the mass (that’s you and me), through the control of natural resources such as oil, water, land, iron ore and even their transportation.
They paid substandard wages. Then required those wages to be used for shelter, food and heat provided by the same Robber Barons.
They squashed competition by acquiring competitors in order to create monopolies and eventually raise prices.
They sold stock at inflated prices to “unsuspecting investors” only to see the eventual destruction of the company for which the stock was issued. Thereby the rewards went to the selling Robber Barons and impoverishment went to the unsuspecting buyers.
Most important was the accruing of high levels of government influence by underwriting those who sought elected office.
Financially they were the top 1/10th of 1% of all Americans and considered themselves a form of royalty.
Robber – a sense of criminality
Baron – illegitimate aristocracy in the United States
Most people when informed about the Robber Barons quickly see the similarities with today’s 1/10th of 1%.
Even though they may not know the names of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, Neil Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, Ian Read, CEO of Pfizer, Rex Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil, Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin, William C. Dudley, CEO of Federal Reserve Bank of New York they are aware of the ever widening disparity of income between the majority the ever growing illegitimate aristocracy.
They see the daily bubble called the US Stock Market which was once a place for all and now only for a select few. Of course, it always welcomes the unsuspecting.
They see the mergers and acquisitions and hear about the synergy of scale. They now understand the code which means that pink slips are soon to be delivered.
They watch war after war being created to simply line the pockets of a military industrial complex.
Without hesitating they will all respond that every politician, both newly elected and veteran, has been bought and paid for.
Unbeknownst to the average American, he or she is simply becoming knowledgeable about the people in power of both the 19th and 21st centuries. Nothing has changed in 150 years. It’s just that most people today did not know what to call this 1/10th of 1%. Now they do.
ROBBER BARONS
Perhaps soon they will be able to name the Vice President.
I knew every one of those names. What do they teach in school these days?
“What do they teach in school these days?”
Mostly sex ed,and tolerance.
Apparently lies. This article is pure BS.
A few of them might be loosely called robber barons, most not.
Hogwash. Robber Barons built this country and made it
the great nation is was. Sure, they made a pile doing
it, it’s called capitalism and we’d be a damn site better
off if we could go back to it.
This article sounds like more socialist claptrap,
exploiters, robber barons, the poor working class
etc. etc.
The Myth of the Robber Barons describes the role of key entrepreneurs in the economic growth of the United States from 1850 to 1910. The entrepreneurs studied are Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, James J. Hill, Andrew Mellon, Charles Schwab, and the Scranton family. Most historians argue that these men, and others like them, were Robber Barons. The story, however, is more complicated. The author, Burton Folsom, divides the entrepreneurs into two groups market entrepreneurs and political entrepreneurs. The market entrepreneurs, such as Hill, Vanderbilt, and Rockefeller, succeeded by producing a quality product at a competitive price. The political entrepreneurs such as Edward Collins in steamships and in railroads the leaders of the Union Pacific Railroad were men who used the power of government to succeed. They tried to gain subsidies, or in some way use government to stop competitors. The market entrepreneurs helped lead to the rise of the U. S. as a major economic power. By 1910, the U. S. dominated the world in oil, steel, and railroads led by Rockefeller, Schwab (and Carnegie), and Hill. The political entrepreneurs, by contrast, were a drain on the taxpayers and a thorn in the side of the market entrepreneurs. Interestingly, the political entrepreneurs often failed without help from government they could not produce competitive products. The author describes this clash of the market entrepreneurs and the political entrepreneurs. In the Mellon chapter, the author describes how Andrew Mellon an entrepreneur in oil and aluminum became Secretary of Treasury under Coolidge. In office, Mellon was the first American to practice supply-side economics. He supported cuts on income tax rates for all groups. The rate cut on the wealthiest Americans, from 73 percent to 25 percent, freed up investment capital and led to American economic growth during the 1920s. Also, the amount of revenue into the federal treasury increased sharply after tax rates were cut. The Myth of the Robber Barons has separate chapters on Vanderbilt, Hill, Schwab, Mellon, and the Scrantons. The author also has a conclusion, in which he looks at the textbook bias on the subject of Robber Barons and the rise of the U. S. in the late 1800s. This chapter explores three leading college texts in U. S. history and shows how they misread American history and disparage market entrepreneurs instead of the political entrepreneurs. This book is in its fifth edition, and is widely adopted in college and high school classrooms across the U. S.
Bubba’s favorite Georgetown Professor, Carroll Quigley wrote in Tragedy & Hope that the House of Morgan ran Dem & Repub pres candidates twice, though 40 years apart.
Even though the majority of people still lived on farms (that would swiftly change during the 20th century), the country went from a mostly agricultural based country to the world's most powerful industrial nation.
A person transported from 1850 to 1900 or 1900 to 1950 would be far more stunned by the changes in America than a person transported from 1950 to 2000.
Allow me to educate you Bill Tatro:
It’s John Jacob ASTOR.
Note that Tatro does not name any presstitute or Hollyturd robber barons.
I. Know of James FISK but who the heck was James Fish?
Thank you for this information. I have recently determined that Big Business is composed of two types: Producers and parasites. You describe the same phenomenon.
The concept of the “consumer based economy” is the viewpoint of a parasite. No parasite, whether bacterial or human has ever considered the well-being of the host. They exist to consume and consume only.
They eventually kill their host, and wonder what happened. We must stop vilifying all big business. No consumption can occur without there first being production.
We must identify, support and encourage our real producers, the people who create more wealth than they consume. We still have such intrepid and honorable people among us. They deserve our support and admiration.
But, we must be able to differentiate between them and the parasites of big business who rely upon government subsidies and mandates to stay in the marketplace.
Yeah, and some of those ‘evil bastards’ gave a LOT of their money to charity.
I don’t like it when the right co-opts this anti-business far left rhetoric.
“The period of the so-called robber barons (1850-1900) was the era of the greatest growth of wealth by pct. for the average American in American history.”
YOU have a brain, and even use it.
Bump
Praise these enlightened and forward looking entrepreneurs who left a legacy of progress and brotherhood forcing the Marxists to resort to hypnotism of the proletariat to fool them into thinking that they were being treated like a box of bolts.
Of course, this is certainly why conservatives control the arts, the press, the universities, the entertainment media, the bureaucracy, the youth demographic, the...what have I left out of this glorious litany? Help me out here...
I got the same impression when reading that drivel.
Has there been abuses of position or power? Of course, but in most cases, sound business practices, wise decisions and good management will survive. It is a dog eat dog world out there.
It is the Government that screws around to try to “level the playing field” that causes some of this envy and the expectation of the masses that they will be GIVEN a bigger slice of the pie.
The writer has a problem with envy. He needs to envy down a bit!
He sure does.
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