Why Is John D Rockefeller A Captain Of Industry

Robbers of Industry: Exploring Rockefeller's Case of This False Binary
Looking at Google Search trend data shows that the person most associated with the term ‘robber baron’ is business tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Interestingly enough, however, is that the same is true for the term ‘captain of industry’ (Google Trends). To this day, the legacy of Gilded age business leaders like Rockefeller is conflicted, with people struggling to decide whether they were captains of industry, a robber barons, or both. Rockefeller's case, however, is most conflicting given the enormous impacts he had, both good and bad, by improving quality of life but decreasing competition in the industry. Rockefeller's Standard Oil was formed during a time of need. America was industrializing fast, railroads were expanding, and need for oil was at an

During the times, Ida Tarbell, muckraker and advocate, dedicated her entire life to exposing these methods in the case of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. What she concluded was that “John D. Rockefeller and his associates … fought their way to control by rebate and drawback, bribe and blackmail, espionage and price cutting” (Tarbell). Some of these may seem beneficial, such as rebates and price cutting, but their reality is much worse. Rebates were only available to Standard Oil, not to any smaller businesses, discouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, and overall advancement in the oil industry. In addition, the use of this saved money to cut prices only increased Standard Oil’s profits and reach, making them exponentially more powerful, and making the market that much less competitive. The purposeful and forceful creation of a monopoly by John D. Rockefeller essentially eliminated the idea of a meritocracy in the oil industry. Standard Oil success was due to its size and resources, destroying small and potentially better