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Why Is John D Rockefeller Unethical

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John Davison Rockefeller is best known for being the founder of the Standard Oil Company. He came from a modest beginning and then entered the oil business. Soon he controlled ninety percent of the U.S. refineries and pipelines, only ten years after he founded the Standard Oil Company (History.com Staff). Such rapid success could not have come from completely ethical business practices. Practicing such unethical business make John D. Rockefeller a robber baron.
Early in John D. Rockefeller’s life, he showed an entrepreneurial mind and industrious spirit. In fact, he took on odd jobs, raised turkeys, and sold candy to make money. He started officially working September 26, 1855, at sixteen years old. Four years later, he collaborated with …show more content…

Eventually, he saw that controlling railroads was the way to crush out most of his competition. For example, in Macksburg, Ohio there was a competing company owned by George Rice and both companies depended on the railroad. To undercut, Rice’s company Rockefeller threatened the railroad and made them charge Rice a staggering thirty-five cents per barrel while Rockefeller paid a mere ten cents. As that wasn’t a ruining move, the railroad had to pay Rockefeller twenty-five cents for each barrel Rice shipped (Ladenburg) certainly was. To reiterate, driving competition to ruin is one of the main indicators of a robber …show more content…

Soon they fervently began to attack the mother of all trusts, Standard Oil. Many states had antitrust laws and Standard began to experience a headache of lawsuits. To evade court, Standard hopped from state to state. Soon though Standard Oil couldn’t run anywhere because the U.S. attorney general of that time sued them because they broke the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Surprisingly, Standard Oil couldn’t flex its money and win the trial. The Supreme Court ordered the Standard Oil Trust to be dismantled (Constitutional Rights Foundation

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