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The Pros And Cons Of Robber Barons

638 Words3 Pages

After the Civil War, Americans converged to build a nation with optimism. This saw a new wave of industrialism steered by a few entrepreneurs who set up firms to amass wealth and create employment to Americans. The success of these industrialists led historians and other scholars to refer to them as captains of industry or robber barons. By referring to them as captains of industry, historians implied that they applied their ingenuity and inventiveness to transform the economy, and impact the lives of the people through philanthropy. They were also castigated for exploiting the American workers through poor working conditions and low wages for their own selfish gain. However, these men struggled to lay a blueprint for future entrepreneurs, transformed the economy, and made America what it is today.
A robber baron is a business leader who uses his workers’ effort to amass personal wealth with little compensation and contributing negatively to the nation. Robber barons also fail to perform their patriotic duty of paying taxes. They are in most case unscrupulous and despotic. …show more content…

P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Henry Ford could be termed as robber baron from the means in which they run their businesses. These men had high levels of government influence to help protect their vast empires, paid low wages to workers to keep profits high, and had a great control over the nation’s resources and business infrastructure (Perry and Smith, 308). These industrialists built empires by crushing competitors and acquiring their businesses to create monopolies and raise the prices for their own gain. They used unscrupulous schemes to trade stocks at exorbitant prices to other investors, destroying the worth of such companies, and eventually making them go bust so that they could be left in

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Compare And Contrast Vanderbilt And Jay Gould

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We are in an era of great wealth and prosperity in America, but there is a dark secret to this period of economic growth. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould are two of the most influential railroad barons of the time, but their business practices are anything but honorable. Vanderbilt and Gould use their immense wealth and power to create monopolies and exploit the railroad industry for their own gain. They manipulate the stock market, bribe politicians, and use intimidation tactics to ensure their success.

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John D. Rockefeller's Robber Barons

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A “robber baron” is defined as one who uses immoral methods to get rich. John D. Rockefeller, king of oil and the owner of the Standard Oil Company, was known for these unscrupulous tactics. Rockefeller’s peculiar ideas of the “law of nature” in accordance with his “primitive savagery” allowed this stealthy businessman to manipulate his way to the top. Although Rockefeller’s oil monopoly attributed to the wealth of the American economy, he destroyed the morality of modest men to accomplish ultimate power and prestige making him one of the wealthiest industrialists during his time.

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Was John D. Rockefeller A Robber Baron

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When Cornelius Vanderbilt died he left his $100 million fortune to his son William Vanderbilt and they both had the same attitude. During the Gilded Age these big business and their owners were thought of as being Robber Barons or Captains of Industry. The poor working conditions that were provided, the corruption they led in government, and their use of child labor shows that they were Robber Barons. Children were used in labor to work a lot and most days of the week. Kids as young as 5 often worked as much as 12 to 14 hours a day for barely any pay.

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Robber Barons Dbq

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