where they could charge customers

Let's talk for a minute about Marxist college professor's favorite children's bedtime scare-story about the free-market ---- the "robber barrons," the "evil" ones that represent the epitome of free-market capitalism in the raw. There are several books I can adidas predator lz trx ag refer fuzzy socialists to that explain the real history of capitalism in this country, but let me just point out a few facts about the "robber-barrons." The really "bad" robber-barrons of the late 19th century were the same as the corporations taking handouts and subsidies today. They were in league with, and depended on government contracts and handouts to gain them special monopoly privilages to destroy their competition. The classic example were the the railroads that created a near-monopoly in California and other western states in the last half of the 19th century. These railroad corporations got Congress to give them monopolies for railroad freight and agricultural product freight. In league with corrupt state and Federal government regulators, they were able to EXCLUDE other railroads from competing with them. After they got their government-created monopolies set up, they then proceeded to gouge farmers on freight rates, hence gaining the hatred of farmers and small business owners, and earning the name of "robber barrons". However, there was a different kind of productive corporation who never took a dime of government money, and never tried to exclude competition by using Government regulations and bribing government officials to give them monopolies over their competition. James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad created a superlative railroad in the northwest states without any corrupting relationship with government regulators. He beat the competition with his competence and by giving farmers and other shippers a superb railroad with fair shipping prices. Moreover, he HAD to give farmers fair-market shipping prices, because he had fierce competition by other railroads. And that is the primary point here. Fierce free-market competition protects consumers. Government-created monopolies are the true "robber-barrons." Let's talk about another so-called "robber-barron" and his "evil" accomplishments, John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller, due to his superb efficiency as a businessman cheap timberland boots for men and oil producer and refiner, managed to reduce the price of kerosene (used to light lamps at night before we had electric lights), from about $1.50 a gallon to less than 30 cents a gallon by the 1920's. What Rockefeller accomplished was to give Americans the night back. The vast majority of Americans were now able to afford cheap kerosene to light their lamps at night, so they didn't have to go to bed in the dark after the sun went down, or depend on candles, or (horror of horrors) whale oil, almost making whales an endangered species. Gee, it seems that besides Rockefeller giving most Americans the ability to read books at night, work at night indoors, and stay up at night with cheap kerosene fuel, he also saved the whales (eco-freaks rejoice!). That's really evil. That's besides literally creating the oil and refining industry that we have today that employs millions of Americans, lights their houses at night, drives their cars, refrigerators, and iPods. Yes, what an evil "robber-barron" he was. A more modern classic example of a true government-created "robber-barron" was the stranglehold monopoly on long-distance telephone service held by AT&T for over 20 years. WHY did AT&T have a monopoly where they could charge customers $1.50 a minute for long-distance calls, where now, after the AT&T monopoly was broken up, fierce competition has driven down the price of long-distance calls to less than 10 cents a minute? It was because Federal government regulators GAVE them that monopoly by cheap timberland boots legally forbidding other competitors. The same goes today for the US Post Office.