U.S. History 1877-Present 3: Captains of the Second Industrial Revolution

$500 to $1,100 so it's a lot more why so much growth was our economy just eating [Economy man appears]

all its peas and carrots or was it sneaking some growth hormone and who its [Smoothie appears]

smoothies or with an eating peas and carrots smoothies plus growth hormone none

of the above we didn't do that it actually had more to do with an

explosion in American manufacturing that happened during the Second Industrial [Explosion occurs and factory appears]

Revolution American industrial development had suddenly blasted off

industries were investing in new machines and production techniques so we [Rocket launching]

could make stuff cheaper better faster and we took our profits and invested

them in other industry to make those industries more profitable and more [Man sat at desk with pile of cash]

massive and then we took those profits and invested it we made money and only

grew and these guys are making money hand over fist this rise of Industry

dramatically changed what it meant to be an American for most people the past had [Boy sitting in a wheelbarrow]

all been about subsistence agriculture aka working on the family farm just to

basically stay alive but now America was headed towards a future filled with

smoke machines and wonderful terrifying technological discoveries a few people [Rollercoaster in motion]

rose to the top of this new American order Andrew Carnegie john d rockefeller

JP Morgan Cornelius Vanderbilt yeah those guys whose names are still all

over everything these were the original American rich deuced they were the

almost unimaginably powerful tycoons of coal oil steel and high-tech they were

called the captains of industry if that name sounds like a superhero team to [Captains of industry appear]

rival the Avengers it's because some people thought of them in exactly that [Avengers characters appear]

way well some saw the captains of mythic heroes leading America out of the

darkness of tradition and into the light of industrial production of course other

saw these guys as a little supervillain they were like the

epitome of Ebenezer Scrooge Oh which got programmed into Ultron and took over the [Ultron appears in space]

country why did something to happens of industry we're so bad well probably

because they used ruthless cutthroat tactics like exploiting poor workers and [People working in a clothing factory]

well the poor in general they were creative they found ways to make money

and yes in the process some of the workers didn't get rich along with them

it wasn't like they had stock options like today's Silicon Valley so some

people thought the rich guys were creating jobs and leading the country [Workers sitting on steel gurder eating lunch]

forward now's good thing while some people thought they were taking

advantage of the 99% you know the workers to pile up a bunch of money for

themselves that they didn't need and then gave away to create building vermin

to Rockefeller Center it's pretty cool well something a lot like the major [Men hitting each other with bags]

debates in America is still having to this day maybe one day we'll find

something new to talk about if we don't come up with something more interesting [Boy playing videogames]

to say while our friends might stop coming over to hang