Offshoot Journal presents NO GOOD OLIGARCHS. Rockefeller isn’t better than Musk, Mellon isn’t better than Bezos because there are N O G O O D O L I G A R C H S: N O N E.
Carnegie didn’t build concert halls and libraries “for the people” out of his “generosity” (also the workers built them!). The museums, libraries and foundations that emerged from the robber baron era — none of these were given for “free”: they were paid for and built by breaking unions (which transformed US union culture forever), open-firing on striking workers (see Colorado Coalfield Wars, Homestead Strike of 1892, and more); they were paid for by lives exhausted and lost, by the merciless devastation of the environment itself. Such are the pathological roots of philanthropy.
The billionaires of the present only exist because the billionaires of the past. Don’t compliment them, don’t compare them to each other, don’t be grateful for scraps. We wouldn’t have less without them: we would have MORE. Let’s learn about the history of robber barons so that we can better understand this terrible present. Remember: let’s continue to politically educate one another and build movements where people are thoroughly informed on as much as possible. The time is now!
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Links for further reading:
Brooke Harrington on the Daily Show
Philanthropic annual expenditure
Philanthropic tax shields: Roth IRAs as tax-free piggy banks
Tax Avoidance and Dynastic Wealth of the Scripps, Mellon and Mars Families
Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations’ contribution to Nazi science
Sarah Scaife Foundation influence
Scaife (Mellon) Family influence
Oligarch pet projects:
Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations’ contribution to Nazi science