Rockefeller: The Richest American Who Ever Lived | 5 Minute Video

Was America's first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, a greedy robber baron, a generous philanthropist, or both? And did the oil tycoon exploit America's poor or give them access to much-needed energy? Historian and Hillsdale College professor Burt Folsom, author of "The Myth of the Robber Barons," reveals the truth about the Rockefeller empire.

📲 Take PragerU videos with you everywhere you go. Download our free mobile app!

Script:

He was called “the most hated man in America.” Yet the New York Times described him as “the world’s greatest giver.” He was America’s first billionaire. And he gave half of it away. He was the quintessential so-called “Robber Baron” of the Gilded Age. But he was probably more responsible than any other single individual for the creation of the American middle class and the development of America as a great industrial power. He lived in a splendid mansion. But was so worried about spoiling his children that he dressed them in hand me down clothes. Song lyrics were written about him. But he rarely went to social events.

His name was John D. Rockefeller. And his story is uniquely American.

Born in upstate New York in 1839, he did not have an easy childhood. His father was a part time salesman and a full time philanderer. Rockefeller’s mother assured John that God was the father who would never let him down. Rockefeller absorbed that message. It guided his life. Deeply religious, he put into practice the spiritual law “Give and it shall be given unto you.” From his teenage years to his dying day, Rockefeller always gave a portion of his income to charity.

Rockefeller’s special gift to the world was kerosene, cheap kerosene, cheap enough that anyone could buy it. Before the formation of his signature company, Standard Oil, people lit their homes with candles and heated them with coal or wood. The candles were dim and the coal was dirty. Rockefeller’s affordable kerosene -- processed crude oil -- made the world brighter, warmer, cleaner, and better -- for everyone. “We must ever remember,” Rockefeller wrote to one of his partners in 1885, “we are refining oil for the poor man and he must have it cheap and good.”

Rockefeller loved the business of business. He attended to every detail -- always with the same goal, saving the customer money. That he made so much of it himself was a byproduct. He was also scrupulously honest. His first partner, Maurice Clark said, “If there was a cent due a customer, he wanted the customer to have it.”

Rockefeller displayed genius at getting creative ideas from his employees at Standard Oil. He paid them well -- and rarely had labor problems. He generously rewarded his chemists and engineers when they found new ways to get more kerosene out of a barrel of oil. Other oil refiners dumped oil waste into nearby rivers. That repulsed Rockefeller who was perhaps the greatest environmentalist of his age. Not only was he a great lover of nature, he was the ultimate recycler. He believed there was a God-given use for every particle in a barrel of oil and he was determined to find it.

After the kerosene had been removed, Rockefeller’s staff found uses for the remaining components: the gasoline as fuel, some of the tars for paving, and other by-products to manufacture paint, varnish, and even anesthetics.

It’s hard to imagine that the automobile industry would have even come into existence without the availability of Rockefeller’s cheap oil. When Henry Ford was ready with his Model-T, Rockefeller was ready to supply the gas.

[indianzionist]

If CAPITALISM is the product of GREED, SOCIALISM is the product of JEALOUSY!

[Jordanicolass]

If you came up with an idea or a product that improves and make life better for millions of people you DESERVE to be rich, period. I will not envy you and yell to the government "its not "fair", I will honor you, learn from you and try to follow your steps.

[TT-tjfm]

“I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.” — John D. Rockefeller

[andrepruduarte]

0:41 I actually thought he was going to say JOHN CENA

[Azhucabomb]

"I do not want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers" John D. Rockefeller
He kept this in mind while designing our public school system.

[michaelharder]

Rockefeller's success story:

-Multiplied his transactions by making his product affordable
-Multiplied his operating margin by minimizing waste
-Ensured quality work by his employees by compensating them well for their time, and rewarding them well for innovation.

[TickedOffPriest]

Does the Left hate Rockerfeller because:
A. He had few labor disputes.
B. He cared for the environment.
C. He improved the life of his fellow man.
D. He gave to the less fortunate.
E. He was a capitalist.

[TheOsamaBahama]

During his time, there was negative propaganda against him because he was monopolizing the market. Basically his competitores couldn't do a better job than him, so they called him a greedy monopolizer.

[Ianassa]

My issue with the rockefeller dynasty is in the central banking.

[Stiggandr]

Never forget that he had a hand in creating the federal reserve. He sounds like an upstanding man, but also contributed to creating the machine that would be a perpetual cancer on the economies of the world.

[TBustah]

Don't forget whale oil.

Besides candles, people also lit their homes with whale oil. Do you know the main reason why whaling (for the most part) died out? It's not because the environmentalists made enough noise, it's because kerosene became so cheap that whaling was no longer necessary and whale oil could no longer be sold at a competitive price. Whether he cared about the whales or it was merely an unintentional side-effect, it's not much of a stretch to believe this man (and Edison after him) probably saved whales from extinction, and he did it about a century before anyone really cared about them.

[luf]

Federal Reserve, let's see you do a video on that, see who's side you are really on for keeps.

[CocoaNutCakery]

TL;DR Treating a business as a zero sum game is a recipe for failure. Rockefeller didn't do that. He sold as cheaply to his customers as he could, treated his employees well, and tried his best to find uses for what others threw away. As a result, he had great success.

[Umirua]

I think the real reason to why Rockefeller is so criticized is because he managed to create a cartel and basically became the monopoly guy in real life. Later on when P. William McKinley made a campaign to stop the cartels that were pretty normal in US back then a lot of companies failed because of Rockefeller's cartel dealings with those companies.
However what people might like to forget is how Rockefeller was a philanthropist who donated so much money (as the video explains), and is there for not worthy of the criticize he has. Sure there are a lot of capitalists who opress their workers, but Rockefeller was none of them.

[themanunleashed]

I actually never heard of Rockefeller in highschool, but then again I barely learned anything during those times.

[penguinistas]

I'd never heard these things about Rockefeller before, thank you.

[gregb]

Why is it that a conservative or a capitalist is judged so that if he has any flaw or imperfection, he is condemned as evil, yet for leftists all sorts of flaws are just overlooked or excused. For example, many of the same people and groups that condemned Rockefeller at the same time praised what was going on in Russia under Lenin and Stalin.

[mattheffernan]

I don’t want a nation of thinkers.

I want a nation of workers.

– John D. Rockefeller

[gianni]

"Man, I HATE capitalism"
Says the person using the computer.

[gastruperstrasse]

thank you very much for a different and fresh view