Rubbish. They squeezed labor
They didn't. They created literally thousands of jobs.
and hired private armies to keep them docile.
They didn't use armies.
The public paid through the nose for those railroads,
Nope. They were a lot cheaper now (other than the government built ones!).
beneficiaries of giant subsidies,
Nope. No 'giant' subsidies at all..
No free land.
No free mineral rights.
all courtesy of bribed govt. officials.
There was some bribery, but not enough to change anything significant.
that is what kept their prices 'down', but not nearly as low as they should have been.
BULLSHIT! They lowered the cost of producing steel until it was commonplace!
they profited from massive debt loaded on top of railroads due to pirates like Morgan saddling them with huge interests bearing debts while playing monopoly using the funds to buy more railroads,
Morgan didn't build railroads. Mostly they were built by the government, but couldn't make a profit. He did reorganize several of them to make them profitable for the first time by buying the loser railroads from the government and reorganizing them!
then saddling those acquisitions with even more huge debts, hence why businesses that should have been money making machines almost all ended up in bankruptcy
Not under Morgan. Under government management.
and the public eating the losses. Carnegie was Tom Scott's butt boy, the most corrupt railroad exec in history.
Carnegie lowered the cost of steel immensely, making the metal commonplace.
Tariffs made the U.S. economy a powerhouse.
Tariffs are not economy. They are a tax.
That and a tiny middle class
Don't try class warfare with me!
and a large poor population
Don't try class warfare with me!
that required constant influxes of desperate disposable immigrants to keep it fueled.
Keep what fueled? Are you suggesting someone was burning immigrants?
Infant morality rates, epidemics, and starvation kept the death tolls high.
Nothing to do with the so-called 'robber barons'.
WW I and its high demand for skilled labor created a larger middle class and better paid working class, with disposable incomes.
War doesn't create any useful product. It creates demand for destruction. It is costly. Don't try class warfare with me!
The financial scams of the 20's wrecked that economic growth, and FDR rescued much of it.
FDR converted a stock market downturn into an economic depression that lasted for well into the 1950's.
while those who kept their wealth hid out on their estates behind private armies and screamed for the fed to kill all the uppity proles they fleeced. Even the sociopath Joseph Kennedy knew what had to be done to keep the country from total collapse, and he and several others were not known for their massive human empathy.
Now you are just griping in general. Lame.
And, re Carnegie, it was his main engineer who invented all the cost savings in manufacturing,
Under the direction of Carnagie.
plus stealing processes from Britain.
Nothing was stolen, Edwina. Britain used coal, so did we. Meh.
Carnegie fucked off 6 months a year playing golf in Scotland and playing Socialist Dilletante, and like most elites wouldn't be caught dead actually practicing what he preached. He paid Frick to do the dirty work and get the bad publicity. Frick was well suited for the job, being a total asshole and sociopath.
You seem to dislike the game of golf. The last thing Carnagie was was lazy.
Engineers made all the improvements, not people like Carnegie and Morgan.
Nope. Carnagie and Morgan. Those engineers worked for Carnagie and Morgan.
The economy wildly benefited from their contribution to it!
* Far cheaper steel.
* Railroad expansion and profitability.
* The creation of advanced banking services (including business loans).
No, I won't let you get away with pushing the 'robber baron' narrative.
