U.S. History 1877-Present 3: Captains of the Second Industrial Revolution
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The "Captains of Industry" were a super team of businessmen known for empowering the US's economy through industrial production. We know it's not quite as cool as fighting off an army of evil robots...but...well, nothing is. And robots didn't exist back then anyway, so we can't really blame them.
Language | English Language |
U.S. History | U.S. History 1877-Present |
Transcript
$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