Sunday, May 18, 2014

The Economist — John D. Rockefeller Defended [Review of Titan: The Life Of John D. Rockefeller Sr. By Ron Chernow]

Nowadays, says Ron Chernow, most people imagine that American businessmen believe in competition. In fact, as he shows, in his thorough and thought-provoking biography of the greatest businessman in American history, combination has been as constant and perhaps as creative a force in the history of capitalism as competition. 
“It was forced upon us,” John D. Rockefeller said. “We had to do it in self-defence. The oil business was in chaos and daily growing worse.” And he spelled out his economic credo in words that were as shocking in the 1870s, when he built his great combination, or in the 1890s, when he had to defend it against the attacks of the muckrakers, as they may be to free-market theorists today. “The day of combination is here to stay. Individualism has gone, never to return.”...
Mr Chernow has written a worthy biography of a truly titanic figure. He conceals none of the seamier side of Standard Oil's practices, but his overall view is sympathetic. In his opinion the vast accumulation of Rockefeller's fortune and the almost equally fabulous disbursements of his philanthropy were not in contradiction, but were two sides of his Protestant capitalist ethos. “Many of Rockefeller's critics alleged that he divided his life into compartments and kept two separate sets of moral ledger books: one governing his exemplary private life, another sanctioning his reprehensible business behaviour,” Mr Chernow writes. “But he saw his entire life guided by the same lofty ideals.”
 Like Ayn Rand, he must have liked Nietzsche, too.

"Combination" = oligarchy, cartel, trust

The Economist
John D. Rockefeller Defended

1 comment:

Roger Erickson said...

Yes, increasing coordination is the basic logic of all social species ... but specific examples do NOT always occur for the reasons touted by the practicing individuals.

Memoirs usually defend lifelong desires & habits, whereas context is always best-defined by an increasing diversity of outside feedback.