Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were two of the early industrialists. Both of them were greedy criminals who exploited the country and its workers. Anyone who owned a large business in those days found it was possible to make more money by abusing the workers and competitors. Industrialists abused workers by forcing them to work longer hours for lower pay; they abused competitors by using predatory practices to either drive them out of business or acquire them. A business can do those things easily if it is a monopoly. Since a monopoly is the only supplier in a market, it prevents free market forces from setting prices. Price-fixing is an example: monopolies can keep the price high, because they know the buyer has no choice. In addition, monopolies can supply inferior products (which costs them less), again because the buyer has no alternative. As a result, monopolies have no incentive to improve their products or services, and the high prices cause inflation. This is bad for all consumers, because there will be no innovation. The early industrialists engaged in these monopolistic practices, sometimes in criminal ways, and that was bad for society.
When Carnegie decided to go into business for himself, he chose the steel industry, but his success came at the expense of his workers. He decided he should own the entire supply chain from iron mines and coal fields (to supply his raw materials) to ships and railroads (to deliver his products). He expanded rapidly; not
Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men in America but his wealth didn’t come without hard work and dedication. Carnegie was born in “Dunfermline, Scotland on November 25, 1835” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle, the invention of the weaving machine unfortunately pushed Carnegie’s family in to poverty “In 1848, Carnegie’s family left Scotland and moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, where his father and eventually him worked in a cotton factory” (Tyle). After leaving the cotton factory “Carnegie became a messenger boy for the Pittsburgh telegraph office and eventually made his way up to telegraph operator” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle “Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, made Carnegie his secretary at the age of eighteen.” Later, Carnegie took over Scott’s position of the railroad. Furthermore Carnegie “began to see that steel was going to replace iron and by 1873 he organized a steel rail company” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle he continued to build his company when he “cut prices, drove out competitors,
Without Carnegie, the steel industry, and the second industrial revolution in general, would never have progressed as much as it did. Carnegie did what was necessary to make the steel industry more productive and more efficient, for less money. He was a shrewd, ruthless, businessman who’s aggressiveness made the steel, railroad, and oil industries so economically successful. These characteristics, though not always looked upon as nice or sympathetic, were sometimes necessary. He had paid his time as a poor factory boy, and now it was his turn to live comfortably and aid others less fortunate to work towards the same success.
The Carnegie Steel Company was a successful factory, which employed many hundred of workers. Andrew Carnegie, who was the owner of the company, wanted a large successful business, which he had achieved already, but he was always looking for ways to save and make more money. By 1892, unions had been formed
As young immigrant child living in the rural ruins Andrew Carnegie was forced to not receive education and held accountable for his family´s well being. One of his early jobs was a telegrapher this job gave him the experience that led him to becoming Thomas Scott´s protégé in the railroad business. By this, Carnegie obtained many knowledge from the desiscions Scott made, which eventually help Carnegie create the sensational Steel Industry. Although, Carnegie´s story is one of the most admired through-out this era, however in his early life things weren’t effortless. The responsibility taken by him during his childhood was colossal having to work everyday to sustain a single mother raised family is not a piece of cake. Similiarly,the average life a coal miner entails how poor children had to appear at the coal mine everyday risking their life each second spent in the fuming mines, and all for a couple of cents a day. This caused a an enormous impact on Carnegie´s perspective over wealth, he believed if people wanted to overcome
Many people at the time were living in poverty and there weren’t enough jobs that had sufficient pay to support a family. The steel industry was one that had the highest earning wages. The average daily wage at the time for iron and steel workers were $1.87, this is far above other industries that had a smaller amount of pay. Others can argue that because of the bad working conditions workers faced in the steel industries, Carnegie shouldn’t be considered a hero. But isn’t the goal of a business to create more jobs? Carnegie believed that it was proper to have completion between the rich and the poor because if there wasn’t, there would be no individuals capable enough to provide such jobs to further expand the essential needs of laborer and those of the economy (Doc 3). When Carnegie sold the Carnegie Steel company to J.P Morgan for $400 Million, the newly named company (U.S Steel) created numerous amounts of jobs employing 168,000 people.
How did Andrew Carnegie’s views of the obligations of wealthy people compare with those of Henry George?
Captains of industry were defined as the business leaders whose means of amassing a personal fortune contributed positively to the country or society in some way. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were considered to be captains of industry because with their profits from either their steel company or standard oil company, they give back to the society instead of themselves. They believed in the idea that people give in to you, in which you must give out as well. They established many charitable foundations that allowed them to become well known philanthropist and made them distinguishable from the rubber barons.
Let us first look at Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a mogul in the steel industry. Carnegie
Carnegie didn’t let the Industrial Revolution that destroyed his father’s business destroy him. As a young boy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Carnegie began working in a factory. He despised this position but it made him stronger and he pushed on in his hunt for his new future. In so doing, he was able to gain a fresh outlook with a position in a telegraph office. From here, he developed a skill that all successful business men need to master; Carnegie learned the artful skill of making business connections. This new talent is what led Carnegie to his relationship with Thomas Scott. Scott helped Carnegie by getting him a job with Pennsylvania Railroad. This position was a crucial turning point in Carnegie’s career.
Andrew Carnegie built his fortune out of nothing, clawing his way to the top and making his fortune by seeing the expanding usage of steel and quickly jumping on the opportunity, becoming one of the first and biggest steel producers in America, and later the world[2]. With this massive corporation
Two of the most well-known and successful companies of the Industrial Revolution were the Standard Oil Company, and the Carnegie Steel Company. Both were exceedingly successful in virtually removing all competition in their respective fields of business and controlling almost all of the production capacity of their respective products in the United States. Their founders, John D. Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Co., and Andrew Carnegie of the Carnegie Steel Co. conducted business practices that were different from one another in how they dealt with competition as seen in the undercutting or cheap type
In the movie, The Richest Man in the World, Andrew Carnegie played a major role in influencing the Industrial Revolution, which changed the economy of the US and the world forever. This era brought upon significant changes through economic developments that would not only change the ways of the economy but also the social aspect of society, especially within the cities where this growth was located. The shift from hand-made to machine-made products increased productivity and decreased costs. Through the innovations of the new forms of energy, such as iron, and then steel, establishments of factories began, competition between businessmen arose, and innovations of transportation in the city through railroads and bridges developed. The
Carnegie not only got his start as a young Irish immigrant working as a railroad telegraph operator, his first major corporation was the Keystone Telegraph Company, in which he acquired the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company. Carnegie thought of giving up on business after having moderate success, but on a trip to England in 1872, he met with Henry Bessemer and saw his plans for steel. (Carnegie
It illustrated the poor conditions of labour, which contributed to industrialization and a labour union, which took care of fighting for benefits and the working conditions of these child labourers. Andrew Carnegie’s article (as seen in document D) proposes the idea of the rich using their wealth to improve society, as he believed that the fact that a person was rich, showed that he was more fit than others. Carnegie acknowledged that the living conditions were poor and wanted to help change that. This introduced industrialization into the Gilded Age. In the late 19th Century, Carnegie led the enormous expansion of the American steel
Andrew Carnegie had a steel monopoly, but even through all of his wealth and success he was a robber baron. To start Carnegie made his workers work 12 hour shifts with five minute break time. It was 6 days a week, and only had 4th of July off. (Article 1) This tired workers which gave them very little family time, or even have enough to fund them, this made him a robber baron. Next Carnegie workers work in very humid, unsafe working conditions. (Article 1) This made workers get hurt, tired which caused them to go on strike. To add Carnegie paid workers minimum pay, but if the company bought new equipment their pay would drop. (Hist. Book) This would give workers a stressful time to help their family survive, even though he had so much