Yup. It really was the Wild West, when it came to the railroad robber barons. I studied this decades ago in my California history classes in college. The Big Four ripped off government, homesteaders, shopkeepers - you name it, they got rich off it. They advertised wonderful land in sales pitches to folks back East, enticing them to buy plots of land our West, while ripping them off on shipping goods and transporting the people. When these folks arrived to western destinations such as LA via train they found dusty barren plots nothing like what was described. The robber barons were deep into politics (Stanford was California governor) and continued fleecing people and government. In downtown SF the Big Four family influence is still evident (hotels, mansions, etc.).
This digresses from the discussion about Elon Musk, but this is a discussion about a very influential character living in our time, having his fingers in many pots.
Yeah, and as I’m sure that you know the Interstate Commerce Commission was a reaction to how railroads were treating the public back when they had monopoly power. The very first regulatory agency, 1887. It didn’t arise out of nowhere.
Standard Oil was another culprit, they actually managed to get a cut out of what their competitors paid the RRs.