So, how did these four men become so wealthy? Well, keep in mind that this was the most unusual period in U.S. history, which is why it’s my favorite period from the standpoint of economic liberty. Imagine: No income tax or IRS, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, national-security state (i.e., Pentagon, CIA, and NSA), (few) economic regulations, public schooling, foreign interventionism (except the Spanish-American War), foreign aid, drug war, immigration controls, and gun control. Like I say, the most unusual society in history, totally different from the type of society in which we live today.
One of the shibboleths of progressives (i.e., “liberals” or leftists) is that they love the poor. However, the truth is more complex. Actually they only love the poor when they remain poor. If the poor get rich, they then hate them.
Consider, for example, four American multimillionaires from the Gilded Age, which is my favorite period of time in U.S. history: John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, and Leland Stanford.
The left hates them. All four of them are vilified as “robber barons.” However, leftists also love them.
How is that possible?
Well, they hate them because they were rich. But they weren’t always rich. They started out poor. The left loves them when they were poor because leftists love the poor. It was because they got rich that the left began hating them. If they had remained poor instead of becoming rich, leftists would have continued loving them.
Consider Rockefeller. According to his Wikipedia page, he was “one of the wealthiest Americans of all time.” That why the left hates him and vilifies him. But Rockefeller wasn’t always rich. Wikipedia says that he was born to “con artist” William A. Rockefeller, Sr., who “worked first as a lumberman and then a traveling salesman.” John D. Rockefeller’s first job was as an assistant bookkeeper, during which he “worked long hours.”
Consider Carnegie, another one of the richest Americans ever. But he wasn’t always rich. Wikipedia: He was born in Scotland “in a typical weaver’s cottage with only one room. His father had a “successful weaving business and owned multiple looms…. When Carnegie was 12, his father had fallen on tough times as a handloom weaver. Making matters worse, the country was in starvation. His mother helped support the family by assisting her brother and by selling potted meats at her ‘sweetie shop,’ becoming the primary breadwinner.”
Consider Vanderbilt, also one of the richest people in American history. Wikipedia: “He began working on his father’s ferry in New York Harbor as a boy, quitting school at the age of 11. At the age of 16, Vanderbilt decided to start his own ferry service. According to one version of events, he borrowed $100 (equivalent to $1,900 in 2023)[7] from his mother to purchase a periauger (a shallow draft, two-masted sailing vessel).”
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