Views of the Wealthy

People have always been driven to do something if they obtain something in return. Usually, they will wish for money in return, due to money having a value.  Whether they get the money through an honest graft or dishonest graft, it will show how deep they're willing to go for it.  In the past, there were several people that earned a lot of money; the poor saw the rich as either robber barons or captions of industry.  Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan are all examples of rich money makers in the 1800s.  Today I'm going to focus on Andrew Carnegie.

Andrew Carnegie used horizontal and verticle integration to buy out all of the competition in his steel-making business.

There are two different ways to look at his actions.  You can either see Carnegie as a robber baron or as a captain of industry.  For me, I see him as a captain of industry.  He knew how to go into a business and take control, making a large amount of profit as he went. I do believe that Andrew Carnegie knew how to use their resources to their advantage.  On the flip side, other people might see Carnegie as a robber baron.  By focusing in on his monopolistic ways, such as taking advantage of immigrants, paying very low wages, and using young children to work in dangerous factories so that his work could be completed, the people may see Carnegie as "robbers" for misusing people for their own need. 

But then we can look further into Andrew Carnegie created something called "The Gospel of Wealth".  Carnegie believed that God had made him rich so that he could be responsible and give it to the poor.  He built schools and libraries and art centers; really anything that would help the public.  

So, to me, he is a captain of industry.  Doing good with his money, helping the public.  

Yet many people still weren't happy with his decision; they thought that he gave away his money "too late".  Overall, the rich can never make the poor completely happy due to the fact that they couldn't see past the huge gap in their wages.

Today, businesses aren't allowed to create monopolies.  However, there are a few companies that seem to hold a very high power compared to other businesses.  For example, Reed Hastings.

Reed Hastings is an entrepreneur that founded Netflix.

Hastings has a net worth of 2.3 billion dollars!  By creating Netflix he caused businesses, such as blockbuster, to get shut down due to there being not enough profits for their company.  Also, Reed Hastings used the internet to his advantage by making Netflix so accessible to the general public.  Since businesses aren't allowed to be monopolies, he has to make sure that his company does not get overly large and take over the whole movie and tv show industry.  Hastings is definitely a captain of industry because he was able to take a small idea and make it grow to where millions of people use Netflix regularly.
People seem to see wealthy people as idols.  People wish they could be just like fellows such as Reed Hastings because of the luxurious life they live.  That seems to be the same that it was in the old days as well.  However, the difference now is that there are laws that rule against child labor and regulations that keep workers safe.  People seem to be at ease now that workers are safer than before, so they don't get upset with the wealthy too often.


Citations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Carnegie
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cornelius-Vanderbilt-1794-1877
https://techcrunch.com/topic/person/reed-hastings/

Past to Present

Does the past affect the present?

People all around the world seem to never pay attention when historical subjects are being presented. They say "That doesn't affect me, it happened so long ago!" or even "No need for me to listen or even learn about this since it's in the past.".  These people believe that the past does not affect their present, however, the past does affect the present.  The past does affect the present and what makes that true is karma, past wars shaping how we live, and the technologies available to us.

Karma plays a significant role in the past affecting the present.  This is seen through the thought that if you have a good past then you'll have a good present.  For instance, if you study weeks in advance for a test that you take tomorrow, then your present self should thank your past self because of how well prepared you were.  Also, this is seen through the way that you behave.  If as a child you were a brat who never listened to their parents and kept pestering everyone around them, then you will probably act that same way today in the present.  This also goes with the way that people act towards you; if during your childhood people always made fun of you and teased you, then in the present you probably won't have the best outlook of yourself.  On the flip side, if you were nice to everyone as a child and had a lot of good friends and stayed positive, then in present day you are probably living a good, healthy life.

The past also affects the present by former wars affecting the way countries are.  If the Native American wars didn't happen then we'd probably be sharing this land with a lot of Natives.  If the civil war never happened then slavery might never have been abolished. There can be so many "if this war didn't happen then this would be different" but since those wars did happen, it has obviously affected the present.  The technologies that are used during the war that was used in the past are still being used today because they had shown how effective they were in the past.  For example, poisonous gas and propaganda were used back during the first world war, and they are still being used today.

Past technologies provide present technologies their structure of support.  Without Benjamin Franklin inventing the light bulb in the past then electricity might not be a thing in the present day.  The camera was first invented in 1816 by Nicéphore Niépce. The past cameras had to have the pictures developed or even printed immediately (with no do-overs).  However, because of the growth of technology, cameras are able to be a high-tech resource present day. 

The past has affected the present in multiple ways, a few ways being through karma, how past wars shaped countries, and the technologies available to us.   People need to understand that it's important to learn history so that they won't repeat the same mistakes that our ancestors did.  It's like that saying, history repeats itself.  Even the wisest person is not considered wise without being knowledgable about history.  So, the next time that someone says to you "I don't need history", lay down the facts for them.  

Citations:

The Guardian, Süddeutsche Zeitung, El Paîs, La Stampa, Gazeta Wyborcza and Le Monde. “First world war: 15 legacies still with us today.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Jan. 2014, www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/firstworldwar. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

“History of the camera.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_camera. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

“Vintage Cameras, Movies And TV Programs.” Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/deborahjennings/vintage-cameras-movies-and-tv-programs/. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

“War Propoganda.” Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=war propoganda&rs=typed. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=what goes around comes around&rs=typed. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.