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Re: The Men Who Built America [message #92040 is a reply to message #92039] |
Thu, 11 June 2020 12:15 |
Rusty
Messages: 1184 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
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Illuminati (3rd Degree) |
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Industrial age Feudalists almost. The history of capitalism has been pretty consistent in that monopolies develop, politicians are bought, and the business cycle has produced a consistent downturn in the economy every 7-10 years on average. We've had three already this century. Covid, is not an excuse, it's just a trigger for what was inevitable.
Teddy Roosevelt was by today's standards a very progressive president. He was very aggressive, (like his personality), in reigning in monopolistic companies. Like the gentlemen you mention. Bully for him.
The Tesla, Edison rivalry was really interesting. History seemed to favor Edison in American education. Portrayed as all American, hard working, doggedly never giving up on his ideas until he succeeded. His dark side was never alluded to. Tesla though, was like a strange gypsy foreigner. Eccentric and aloof.
Not taking away from Edison's great contributions, but Tesla. Whew, that dude was maybe an extraterrestrial.
Hope that show comes to one of my Roku freebies sometime. I bet that is interesting.
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Re: The Men Who Built America [message #92175 is a reply to message #92174] |
Mon, 17 August 2020 10:56 |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18782 Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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I'll look that one up.
I'm not sure if it's some kind of weird bias I have, but I have even less respect for the "tycoons" in the last 50 years than the ones from 100 years ago that we were initially discussing in this thread.
For example, I always thought Steve Wozniak was the real deal, but never thought much of Steve Jobs. Jobs was charismatic and kinda "hip, slick and cool." But he was really just a salesman. I always thought similarly of Bill Gates, but he wasn't even cool. He was just the first famous nerd. And even more so, guys like Zuckerberg. Talk about yawner technology. I just totally don't care. Definitely isn't like the guys that put us on the moon.
But they have been extremely successful. Most people I know would equate that to mean they're really smart guys. I don't. Not at all. I see them much like the robber barons of 100 years ago, all shuck and jive.
So I have to ask myself, how much of this is some kind of weird bias, maybe even envy? Why do I see them as charlatans? I mean, the Apple II was awesome, and the Lisa and the Mac even more so. Windows has been extremely useful for almost everyone on the planet, and after around 1995, it was actually pretty good software. I still can't find anything good about Facebook, but I don't think I should be too judgmental. It's fun for a lot of people. Most people don't want to develop their own blogs, so Facebook helps them publish online.
Still, the "tech giants" today mostly just gross me out.
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Re: The Men Who Built America [message #92180 is a reply to message #92176] |
Mon, 17 August 2020 16:56 |
Rusty
Messages: 1184 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
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Illuminati (3rd Degree) |
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Going back to RCA, it still amazes me that it was such a massive, huge company but still controlled and run by one person, David Sarnoff. When he retired from the board the company just couldn't seem to do anything right. Don't know if that started while he was still on the board or if it was right after but RCA didn't seem to be able to do anything right in the 1970's.
Before the 70's? They were the 800 pound gorilla that had their hands in everything. Before the 70's you couldn't imagine a world that didn't have RCA.
What I have read is that from the 70's to present time, workers pay have stagnated, CEO compersation and the rest of upper management has increased many times over. Unions have been gutted. Globalization realized for cheap labor. And financialization of our economy has taken precedence over the 'real' economy. Quarterly short term winnings and stock buybacks in the stock market are the goal these days. And debt, mountains of it.
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