In an age of network building and globalization's rapid expansion, the "robber baron" philanthropists are required to hold off the populists
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 12:04AM 
Economist story that just reminds me that, in globalization terms, we are living through an age of great “robber barons” and their subsequent personal guilt expressed in their laudable but somewhat quixotic attempts to fix the world with their wealth.
Gates cannot become Gates without globalization, nor can Buffett. But globalization, with its capacity to make a huge world seem that much smaller, makes the disparity between fantastic wealth and the rest of us all that much more apparent
The last time we saw this sort of progressive largesse? Naturally, it was during the microcosmic globalization that was America’s sectional economies being knitted together into a continental one following our Civil War. Swap out Carnegie for Gates, and the song remains the same—just on a grander, truly global scale.
Natural and good, it’s just not enough. The populism must be followed by the progressivism, so I understand the reach for Obama, who is perceived as being as anti-business and wealth as Theodore Roosevelt was.
Reader Comments (1)
While there can be a parallel to our period of fastest growth in the late 1890's, the parallel gets weak once you see how government has changed.
With roughly 40% of all income going to government and income transfers, The amazing part is that there can still be these types of ultra rich job creators. Government spending at the "robber baron" time, might I add, the time when you had the greatest reduction in poverty in the US, government spending was never more than 10% of GDP. These people create jobs, and I wish the populists understood that....too many populists think it is a zero sum game...if Bill Gates earns, someone else has to lose. The reality is quite the opposite.
At 40%. we have 10% of "helping the poor" left to go, From what I have read on Europe, once you hit 50% of GDP, the spending becomes a joke, and nothing improves. France is around 51% and they still have massive public debt....because they totally buy into the anti rich sentiment.