FRANCH, JOHN, RENEHAN, IR., EDWARD I. D
The time has come for historians of all stripes and persuasions to put behind them the still-persistent “Robber Baton” myth. In the last quarter century the lives of Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan have all been reassessed, and on balance they have received a much cleaner bill of health Carnegie always paid his workers more than other steel producers, large and small. Even the wages offered at his Homestead steel mill in 1892 just prior to the infamous strike were higher than those paid at competitive firms.
Long before Bill Gates and Warren Buffet became a philanthropic team, Carnegie and Rockefeller had established endowments that created a for good deeds.
And despite the myths perpetuated by historians in various formats, including PBS documentaries, J. P. Morgan did not control hundreds of major corporations in the early twentieth century. (Morgan owned few common stocks in any enterprise because he considered most equities too risky for himself and the majority of his wealthy clients.)
The Morgan partners who sat on boards of directors were essentially watchdogs looking out for the interests of bondholders and shareholders.
History indeed records that the men you mention, their business accomplishments and their philanthropy were truly great. However the point is that they and the corporate organizations they founded not only had great economic power but extended their control into state legislatures and Congress. That sort of political control is a threat to democracy. Economic historians have documented how such unchecked political control led to the development of fascism in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Today in the US, the same phenomena is happening with Disney, Hollywood, Big Tech, Amazon and huge social media platforms. The people who run those entities have much different philanthropic and political views than the “robber barons”. They are already aligned with bought like minded politicians and as clearly seen with Disney, are a clear threat to democracy. Either a contemporary Teddy Roosevelt comes forth or these powerful corporations will be the “revolutionaries” that will destroy democracy and the American nation.