The so called “Robber Barons” of the early and mid 1800’s, were responsible for most of what made America great. Were they rich? You bet! Were they smart? Absolutely! Were they ruthless? Many were, but given all of the above, few Americans today, are aware of the true facts and what they did. The Vanderbilt’s, Rockefellers, Carnegies, and the entire host of them, built the railroads, and even the cities. America then, had no income taxes, no Federal Reserve, few laws, no bureaucrats, no inflation, and an entrepreneur was free to invent, manufacture, and export. There were no minimum wages or public schools, and America was far better educated than it is now. There was no welfare, no public housing, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or the wretched wrecks we see major cities now.
John Deere tractors, Singer sewing machines, Baldwin locomotives, Otis elevators, Disston saws, and hundreds of manufacturers prospered and HIRED WORKERS. The workers bought and built millions of sturdy, brick, row houses which had wonderful craftsmanship. Thousands of tree lined neighborhoods came into existence, and were served by electric streetcars who whisked workers to their jobs for a few cents, and created no pollution. America made everything, Two huge streetcar manufacturers in St. Louis and Philadelphia, John Deere and lots of others made great tractors, and railroads carried passengers and freight to all corners of America. All were privately owned, received no subsidies, and were not hampered by endless snooping bureaucrats.
The so called ’robber barons’ invented and started all of this, and became incredibly rich. Was this bad or evil? Far too many think it was, and I wholeheartedly disagree. My daughter Melissa, who has a masters in historic restoration, worked on, and restored some of the huge mansions along the Hudson River in New York State, before she joined me brokering precious metals. Those huge mansions, plus others in America, employed thousands of expert craftsmen to build them and maintain them. Their private railroad cars and steamships took labor to build, maintain and operate. Their swank lifestyles required lots of servants, cooks, and maintainers. Those employees of the rich, made excellent wages, and not a cent was taken by government. None of their rich employers’ profits were taken by government either, so they could build more factories, or invent and develop more things, cities, and neighborhoods, which they did. The robber barons fought with each other, and tried to outsmart and outspend their competitors, which made it even better. Ever been to Newport? Go there and see what a real mansion looks like!
What in heavens name was wrong with it??? They became so rich, and discovered that they couldn’t spend it all, so they gave it away, or funded and started universities, Carnegie Halls, Ford Foundations, and the like. Ford was privately owned until the 1940’s, and Ford built the River Rouge, one of the world’s best, most efficient, and largest manufacturing plants…which lies in ruin now. You can wish you were wealthy, but it does no good to hate wealth. Now look at today. Please look at today, and get a glimmer of what we now have.
Today, we have the Bill Gates types, who have but a small fraction of the wealth of the robber barons, and it is all in un-backed, fading paper money. Until we had welfare, the Federal Reserve, and runaway government, there was no inflation, and no income tax! You made a wage and kept it all. Remember the PBS series of a couple of decades ago, titled “Upstairs, Downstairs?” It was about the rich people ’upstairs’ who employed the servants ’downstairs,’ and it was a grand series. Those ’downstairs,’ didn’t suffer at all, and those ’upstairs’ had far more problems and conflicts than did their servants who made decent wages and had no worries.
Those people worked for rich people, and the same held true during the industrial revolution. The workers did their jobs, were paid, and went home to their families, with all their wages, while the bosses and founders kept working and thinking 24 hours a day, and risking their wealth on new projects. New projects which might break them or make them, but whose employees were worry free wage earners. Today, it is virtually impossible to become truly wealthy. No one builds these huge mansions any longer, nor has lots of servants, and all the accoutrements of the robber barons. And no one takes home their wages, but they are confiscated by a greedy, stupid, central government, which constantly not only takes your pay, but decreases in value what you have left. We are all slaves to government, rather than working for a private firm, and taking our wages home, free from taxes. Henry Ford doubled his factory worker’s wages overnight, so they could afford to buy his Model T Fords! Andrew Carnegie employed thousands in his steel mills, built hundreds of libraries around America, and donated 6,000 pipe organs to churches, besides building Carnegie Hall and starting a huge foundation.
America had gigantic steel plants, railroads, prosperous, individually owned farms, privately educated children who could read, write, and calculate effortlessly. I read constantly, and have read biographies of Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller and their like, and their riches were spread around greatly to charities, workers, educational institutions, and when they died, to funds, which have been betrayed by their current liberal managers; unfortunately. All of America’s might has been destroyed by government. America’s education has been destroyed by government. During the days of the robber barons, there were no public schools, public transport, or public anything. You rose or fell with your own abilities, and if you fell there might have been a private charity to help. If not, too bad. That’s the way it ought to be now.
The days of the so called robber barons made America great, built America’s cities, and neighborhoods. The days of the innovators, manufacturers, and inventers, gave us millions of inventions with no government help, huge movie palaces, skyscrapers, assembly lines, luxury travel, fine American made clothes, huge department stores, downtown shopping centers, radio, TV, telephone, and every single invention the mind can conceive of, and without government to interfere. All of the formerly great, tax free, inflation free, small government America, with gold and silver money, was indeed wonderful. The rich lived as high as they could, while employing millions, and building an unmatched prosperity the world couldn’t believe. Now, we are poor, in debt, our kids can’t read or write in far too many cases, the cities are full of homeless, decaying public housing, crime, filth, and degradation. Thanks government!