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John d rockefeller you know he was important because spell [Person types John D. Rockefeller into computer]

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check doesn't put a red squiggly under his name try of course he had a few

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other achievements to brag about you know how politicians are always talking

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about how they came from nothing to get to where they are how they were super [Politicians talking on stage]

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poor and worked hard to make their dreams a reality well with Rockefeller

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that was actually true he started out as a teenager in the produce business [Rockefeller standing in produce section]

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working as a junior bookkeeper making fifty cents a day but what Rockefeller

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soon learned is that all a fella needs to get ahead in the land of opportunity [Land of opportunity book opens]

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is courage ingenuity and let's say a moral flexibility at times it all

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started in 1863 when Rockefeller got some partners and built an oil refinery

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1863 wasn't something else going on at that time oh yeah the Civil War but [Man thinking about 1863]

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while his brother Frank was off serving this country John Dee made heaps cash

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selling black gold he bought out his partners in the last year of the war and [John standing by oil pumps]

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built the business into the Colossus known as standard oil yep this was the

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birth of big oil people and it was a greasy baby to say the least the father [Doctor and nurse trying to handle big oil]

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of big oil Rockefeller was the archetypical robber baron this is the

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word people used for guys like j-roc who made millions or billions with cutthroat

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business practices Rockefellers robber baron resume looked a lot like many of

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his robber baron frenemies there was starving and endangering his workers

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dominating all stages of production in his industry ruthlessly taking over

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small companies creating a monopoly in which he completely controlled the

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industry and so was able to set whatever prices he wanted all that sounds like

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cheating that's because well it is no doubt j-roc was crafty he turned what [Rockefeller standing outside Arts & Crafts door]

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other oil producers considered waste products into new products he demanded

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cheaper rates from the railroads that hauled is good and if a railroad didn't [Rockefeller standing by train]

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feel like giving one of the richest guys in America a discount Rockefeller just

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bought himself a life-size train set to play with here's another sneaky j-rok

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tactic 19th century America many state governments wouldn't do business with a

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company incorporated in another state for instance Standard Oil is

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incorporated in pennsylvania so it couldn't do business in ohio rockefeller

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got around this by taking over oil company [Rockefeller meeting government inspector]

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in Ohio and continuing to run them under their old names this way the state

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government had no idea was dealing with standard oil it was kind of like a

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corporate sneak attack these supposedly separate corporations were really just

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standard oil in disguise well standard became a trust the parent corporation of

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a number of smaller corporations whose assets standard held in trust Trust

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Rockefeller to make sure those assets went into his mink-lined pocket well of [Rockefeller wearing woolly jacket]

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course plenty of money came out of those pockets too Rockefeller gave millions to

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charity in fact he gave almost half of his billions away before he died in 1937 [Rockefeller in bed and woman stood by bed]

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he funded churches libraries hospitals museums and a whole lot more he used to

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say God gave me money and like a God Himself rockefeller-controlled people [Rockefeller controlling puppets]

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lives in America's businesses doling out both destruction and amazing gifts rocky

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giveth and rocky taketh away

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