Chris Grell
Eportfolio Essay
America's market and daily life today was shaped by people and reforms of the past. Some of
the reforms come from the 1900's where people had incorporated reforms and new ideas in order to
gain money. During the rise of the monopolies I believe that there were "robber-barons" and "captains
of industry". The "robber-barons" consisted of Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Rockefeller, The "captain
of industry" would have to be Andrew Carnegie. Even though all men had utilized different ways of
gaining money, some ways were more cruel than others which drove other companies out of the way to
compete. Which can be seen in today's day of age and what we see around us is because of these men.
Cornelius Vanderbilt was a "robber-baron" in the industry of railroads. In order to drive
competition out of the way he had made informal alliances that eliminated competition with low freight
rates. Another thing that Vanderbilt had utilized was rebates. The rebates was an agreement between a
shipper and client evolving cash back in exchange for exclusive shipping rights, so you "bought" clients
away from competition. So instead of going to other companies for business people would go to
Vanderbilt's company because they would be getting money back for what they had bought. Vanderbilt
had utilized many strategies that are still being used today, such as rebates. Today we see rebates all
where we go today's market. It has affected people in our decisions on what we decide to buy such as
computers, T.V., anything pretty much in today's market. These rebates guarantees that they will get
money back for what people buy from the companies with rebates, it changes the decisions of the
people because people want to get money back for what they are spending, it is a perk. Our decisions
are now based off who can get the most money back now and it affects the timing we buy things. In our
society today we want the best deal, and getting it at the cheapest is the right timing. Rebates have
affected a lot of what we decide to buy today.
John Rockefeller was a "robber baron" as well, in the industry of oil. Learning from his
competitors he had took up the ideas of rebates from Vanderbilt. Another way that Rockefeller had
eliminated competition was using vertical integration. Vertical Integration is controlling all aspects of
your company, which pretty much cuts out the competition for the middle man. In today's society we
still use the same method of vertical integration in certain areas. For me personally, I work at Varian
Medical Systems, where they make and buy all the components there. It is important for us to do that
because it is cheaper. We try to eliminate all the obstacles that would cost us money so in that way we
can make more revenue. What our company does is make all the metal components, plastic
components, monitoring, and wiring. That we can eliminate the cost of other people doing the job for us
and cut back the selling price. This is common for most operators today to control all aspects of their
companies. Rockefeller also grasped the idea of using price wars. This is if a opposing company is
lowering their prices then Rockefeller would lower his prices or lower in order to gain more business and
slightly raise the prices in other areas which had made you practically little or no money at all, but what
is more important is that it had drew in more customers. We see this in today's stores and market.
There are ads in the newspaper which has an ad for soda at $0.79 however, there is a catch, the items
around the chips are at a higher price. These items would be like chips, salsa, anything that goes with
soda. This way the grocery store will draw in more customers, at the same time lose little or no money.
Rockefeller had utilized many concepts which had given him a bigger advantage and drove out the
competition and that are still being used today and has what the nation had model it's marketing ability.
Even though there were many "robber-barons" in the industry there was one "captain of
industry" by the name of Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie had made his business in steel. Steel was a lot
more safer and stronger than the traditional metals. This had brought taller, safer structures such as
buildings that could higher than beyond the norm. In our daily living today we see that there have been
many changes, such as taller building which made it possible for a higher density living. We now have
cities such as New York, Boston, and California with tall buildings which can have more people to live
with in a city rather than out in the rural. Also this had made safer railroads. The railroads before would
twist and warm which would people on the train in danger and also the products on there. The steel had
made a more durable and stronger metal that would be used more often by railroad companies. This
had also made safer bridges. Most of the bridges at the time were made of wood until it was made out
of steel. Safer ships were being introduced as well. Instead of using the more pliable metal steel was
introduced making it able to handle getting bumped into a little. Today this had made it safer for mass
transit for people. We can see a lot of these things today, such as bridges. There have been many
bridges built which had made it more of a convenience for people now in days to get from point A to
point B. In today's daily living we see a lot of the things Carnegie had incorporated using steel. We have
now become a capital of the world, where we are now the most industrialized with tall buildings, mass
transit, and all safer. Without Carnegies' revolution in steel we would not have the America we have
today.
In conclusion, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were leading
example of how we have the America we have today and the reforms of the market along with the daily
life. Vanderbilt and Rockefeller had utilized ideas that such as rebates to get rid of competition and had
monopolized their industry by incorporating price wars, and vertical integration, where we can still see
in today's stores and market places. Andrew Carnegie had benefited the community the most by making
things safer and had increased a lot to the density of living. Thanks to Carnegie the style of living we
have had today had been reformed. Instead of having two or three story buildings, we now have large
cities with multiple buildings several stories tall. In industry there are many ways in order to gain money,
it can be through reforms, like rebates or vertical integration, or it can be through products that help
benefit the public. The things of the people in the past have impacted and shaped the America into the
nation it is today.