The Men Who Built America (cont'd)

The worst segment of the first episode was the absurdly naive comments made by Senator Jay Rockefeller. The senator repeatedly lamented the aggressive ways in which his great grandfather whipped his business competitors. And though the senator has lived in high style thanks to the wealth left to him by his great grandfather, somehow he failed to mention that oil titan John D. Rockefeller actually used 98% of his wealth to fund some of the greatest charities in history.  Not only did America’s original big oil man leave almost all of his money to charities, he did his homework on intelligent gifting. John D. managed to establish truly effective charities that arguably have produced the greatest philanthropic results in human history.  Justice would have been better served if the old man had left Senator Jay’s wing of the family with a small bottle of whale oil to burn for light instead of a gigantic trust fund.

Questioning a history professor about the historical significance of John D. Rockefeller recently proved to be enlightening. I asked this committed progressive to consider the fact that 98% of Rockefeller’s after tax wealth went to charity. In the final analysis, when considering the body of his life’s work, did Rockefeller serve the greater public interest, or the progressives’ favorite lamentation, only “selfish private interests?”

When the question was posed there was considerable hesitation, followed by a hem, then a haw, and finally a change of the subject. The obvious answer to such a simple question was not going to be forthcoming. To acknowledge everything that John D. Rockefeller’s efforts as an entrepreneur did for America would require a complete contradiction of everything the anti-business indoctrinators are doing to diminish the sense most citizens have for the magnitude of the positive contributions successful entrepreneurs provide for our country. What used to be a fine public education system has become statist indoctrination mechanism that first and foremost teaches suspicion of all businesses.