Last night, I was watching the History Channel. First, let me admit that I don’t usually watch it… I am usually reading while the military channel blasts in the background, or the history channel drones about something which interests me not at all. However, last night we were watching a broadcast about some of the great capitalists in our country! Truly amazing stories.
I know that right now capitalism is frowned on by many, but it is one of the things that built this country. Now, I know that those capitalists had employees who were performing the daily back-breaking work, often thankless, and there is a lot of contention about that as well. But I have to say, one would not exist without the other, but honestly, without these men (yes, mainly men) of vision and determination, I wonder where we would be without them?
I am talking of the likes of JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and others. These men did not start out wealthy. Carnegie was a Scottish immigrant who created his wealth as a steel magnate until he sold his company to JP Morgan. Carnegie then retired and became a well-known philanthropist, giving away nearly $350 Million of is fortune! Rockefeller also came from humble roots to amass his fortune in the oil industry. JP Morgan created many industries and became one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the country at that time.
Each of these men had tremendous ambition, power, and money. They created empires that enabled them unsurpassed influence in the nation, even to the extent of “owning” politicians until Teddy Roosevelt became President and started going after each and every one of the monopolies. (this is very disjointed, missing a lot of details, I know).
My whole point here is that these men possessed ambition and desire that is rarely seen today (at least in my opinion). It was JP Morgan, Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse who all vied to be the driving force behind making electricity serve our country. Westinghouse actually was the first to bring electricity to a large area (the Worlds Fair), but it was Morgan who ended up owning the contract that operated the Niagara Falls power plant!
Since then, I began to toy with a thought. What would have happened if we didn’t have JP Morgan, JD Rockefeller, Andre Carnegie and the likes of these industrialists to create the very industries that the government later sought to break into smaller pieces? Would someone else have done the same thing? Would it have taken an additional year, or ten years, or would it have taken 50 or 100 years longer? Where would we have been?
It reminds me of the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stuart. We watch this movie every year during the holidays at our home. In the movie, Jimmy Stuart has the opportunity of a lifetime…the ability to see what would have changed in the WORLD if he had not been born! If you haven’t seen it, take some time to watch it during the holidays.
I think I have morphed from one topic to another, but my whole point in this post is to share how amazed I was in learning the impact that just three men and their vision had upon or entire NATION, as well as wondering where we would have been without them.
It’s easy to poo-poo capitalists, but you have to wonder, where would we be without them?
SoMuchToDo 