Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
Today we laud the robber barons of the past because of the charitable foundations they developed (Rockefeller, Carnagy, and others) but in their time they were the ruthless Capitalists that drove others out of business and treated their workers poorly. Today their legacy is to give millions in charity and help all sorts of causes. Don't be surprised if 50-100 years from now people talk about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos in the same way.
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These conflates rather different business leaders. While anti-union, Carnegie otherwise treated his employees well by standards of the time, and planned philanthropy from a young age. You could say much the same about Bill Gates. By contrast,
Jobs was, and Bezos is, to put it politely, skeptical of philanthropy.
I think that in 100 years, Jeff Bezos will be talked about more in the way of Cornelius Vanderbilt than Andrew Carnegie or Bill Gates.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinp
I'll always do what's best for my family. Most of the time I'll just do without, but I'm not going to deprive my family of food or clothes to help keep mom & pop in business.
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Agreed. Anti-trust is the responsibility of government, not individuals. (And the purpose of anti-trust should not be to keep mom & pop in business, but to maintain sufficient competition so that prices will be long-term low.)