One of the jokes on socialism is as follows:
A socialist walks by a great mansion and scoffs "No one should be that rich!"
A capitalist walks by a great mansion and remarks "Everyone should be that rich."
I found it interesting that Rockefeller has a similar quote:
"I would have every man a capitalist, every man, woman and child. I would have everyone save his earnings, not squander it; own the industries, own the railroads, own the telegraph lines."
Just thought I'd share :)
How far into his career did he say this? Did he mean it? Because as far as I know as soon as those gilded-age barons got rich they wanted nothing more than that nasty capitalism to go away.
"Competition is a sin" is a common quote attributed to Rockefeller.
Idk when he said it. I got the quote from http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2008-summer/standard-oil-company.asp
I do know the same about the Gilded Age barons, but I had not seen much dirt on Standard Oil. What I've seen is that he used free market means to improve his company (though the tariffs certainly helped). Do you have any links showing Rockefeller using government to his advantage as it relates to Standard Oil?
No, to my knowledge Standard Oil was a perfectly competitive company that got big by offering a better product. All those evil business practices that are often decried are just them being more efficient than their competitors. These barons are often quite good capitalists in their early days. But once they are rich they want to stay on top, i.e. use the government to stop others from taking their place. That's when they very much start so see the benefits of government stifling social mobility. The entire Progressive era was supported and financed by gilded age rags-to-riches barons who had personally witnessed that hard-working kids from modest origins could raise to the top in a laissez-faire system. Being the super rich, they wanted to end that. That's when they start to build skyscrapers with communist statues in the front.
That's my general feeling and I'd like to find some solid evidence for it.
@Wheylous: The Rockefellers infiltrated the US government... by the 1950's, CIA was Rockefeller HQ. That said, the more I read about them, the more I'm inclined to think they actually have a bit of an anti-Establishment bent... I don't think they ever got along with the East Coast/British Establishment too well. Remember, their first experiences with the Establishment were its attempts to butcher and portion out the pieces of Standard Oil to all their buddies. I don't think they've ever forgotten that.
Clayton -
http://theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2008-summer/standard-oil-company.asp
Thought this was a good read.
That is in fact from where I got the quote.