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Originally Posted by Kenswing
I guess you never heard of guys like Rockefeller, DuPont, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Morgan, etc. They defined what wealthy and powerful is.
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I believe that a lot of the generosity and charity of those famous historic wealthy individuals came about because of pressure from the tax system. Carnegie, likely had a choice between paying taxes to the Federal Government or giving money to a library system and a University. It's like a choice between giving money locally or to the whole nation. He probably gave locally for many reasons - one of which would be that his name would be on many buildings in his local area. The highest tax bracket that he was in may ? have been partly responsible for his generosity. I would think that this is an example of good laws (tax laws) nudging citizens in the RIGHT direction.
I am NOT a gifted Historian and I have no way to be sure just what was the relationship of those "Captains of US Industry" and the existing tax law of that era. I would IMAGINE that there was an effect. There seems to be some high level Historians here in TV Land, so maybe they could render a further clarification of that question?
I appreciate your interesting comments on America's great "Industry Captains.