re: Witch-hunting for Robber Barons: The Standard Oil Story

Should have been jailed for that. It is a crime. Did he do it?

After 1901 and the assassination of McKinley, Rockefeller did not have a friend in the White House. Roosevelt and the old line money in New York, Boston, etc. were in control of h White House and they very much wanted t put up blocks on Rockefeller and some others.

Sooner or later, those who are not your friends end up in power and Roosevelt was not a "friend" of Rockefeller

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History shows we would've been better off if that company had been dissolved in 1898.

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Point me to that history. Did you read the article in the OP?

Hmm...are you promoting the theory of the second best?

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Between 1870 and 1885 the price of refined kerosene dropped from 26 cents to 8 cents per gallon. In the same period, the Standard Oil Company reduced the [refining] costs per gallon from almost 3 cents in 1870 to 0.452 cents in 1885. Clearly, the firm was relatively efficient, and its efficiency was being translated to the consumer in the form of lower prices for a much improved product, and to the firm in the form of additional profits.

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Judging from the Record, Standard Oil did not use predatory price discrimination to drive out competing refiners, nor did its pricing practice have that effect. Whereas there may be a very few cases in which retail kerosene peddlers or dealers went out of business after or during price cutting, there is no real proof that Standard’s pricing policies were responsible. I am convinced that Standard did not systematically, if ever, use local price cutting in retailing, or anywhere else, to reduce competition. To do so would have been foolish; and, whatever else has been said about them, the old Standard organization was seldom criticized for making less money when it could readily have made more.

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I almost never agree with you, but in this instance you are correct.

Standard oil never acted as a predatory monopoly.

John D ran his company as a model of efficiency. He constantly did things to be ale to cut costs.


An example.
While touring a plant that filled and sealed oil cans, Rockefeller observed a machine soldering tops to the cans.
The machines used 40 drops of solder to seal the cans.
He had them test the if 38 drops of solder would work
After testing a few cans per hundred would leak.
He then had them test 39 drops.
No cans leaked.
39 drops became the new standard and it saved that plant $2500 per year in materials cost.
Over the next decade that one change saved the company over 1 million.

Monopoly and oligopoly are antithetical to a free market. It is the responsibility of government to break up such entities to ensure a healthy market. It's funny how some people talk about wanting free markets and then endorse entities that kill them. Almost like the real underlying reason for all their economic arguments is personal greed, not micro/macro theory.