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.
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Andrew Carnegie used horizontal and verticle integration to buy out all of the competition in his steel-making business.
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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.
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| Reed Hastings is an entrepreneur that founded Netflix. |
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/
Since no one commented on mine, I will just go further into this. Robber barons are people that use workers to their advantage and they aren't afraid to step on anyone or anything to make their way to the top. People like Carnegie and Hastings were captains of industries though. Captains of industries are people that hold a lot of power and they usually deserve it. Carnegie did good things with his money by providing the community better libraries, schools, and art centers. And Hastings was able to provide people with thousands of movies at the click of a button. Overall, both of these people had a great idea and they went with it; therefore they're captains of industries.
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