Industrial Titans: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie

Men Who Built America

First, I would like to say that, in my opinion, none of these men were bad in their totality. I consider that man has two great enemies: power and money.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Cornelius Vanderbilt was an entrepreneur who started his empire from scratch. There are many things that we can highlight about Vanderbilt as a captain of industry: for example, he provided money and jobs to people and was good with his employees. But not everything can be so good. Here are some of the reasons why I think that Vanderbilt was also a robber baron. As I said, he was an entrepreneur, and his ambition led him to do whatever it took for power.

John D. Rockefeller

John D. Rockefeller began working as a child selling candy; it helped him support his family, and he later built his enterprise in the oil industry. But the more he devoted himself to his enterprise, the more he lost himself. All he wanted was to crush the competition no matter what. He used unethical tactics and built pipelines to be able to deliver oil faster, turning his enterprise into a monopoly.

Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie was a very prominent captain of industry. Like Rockefeller, Carnegie started working at a young age to help his family. He helped build early skyscrapers and donated a lot of money to schools; he was a mentor and believed in capitalism. The only things that made Carnegie a robber baron were that he could be revengeful and he expected too much of his workers.

J.P. Morgan

J.P. Morgan also began working at a young age. He invested in Thomas Edison and new technologies such as electricity. His ambition pushed Edison to work more and more because he wanted to be more successful, and that made other competitors look bad.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think nobody is totally good or totally bad. We are just people who allow ourselves to be manipulated very easily by money and power.