What the hell happened to the notion of the benevolent robber baron?

You know? That philanthropic, mega rich, captain of industry who while reaping in millions upon millions of dollars and exploiting the toils of his slave class employees at least projected an image of benevolence and social responsibility. Andrew Carnegie created a library system, Rockefeller turned over 100s of thousands of acres for several National Parks. What the hell have the current class of robber barons done for us lately?

He is sort of doing that stuff.

Bryant

Every major college from CA to MI now have buildings and departments named for Broad... UCLA has a killer art department thanks to him, and he donated millions to their science department for stem cell research. He also awards individual local schools for excellence. Our local art museums have benefited as well. And Broad is one of the wealthy Angelenos who donates cash to "Father Dollar" and others who distribute cash to the homeless during the holidays. I'm sure I haven't scratched the surface here... this is just off the top of my head.

I worked for his company for about 8 years, until he retired and starting doing philanthropic work exclusively.

I tip my hat to EB. He worked his way up the ladder, pulled many up after him, and now he spends all of his time giving back.

Edited to say, EB contributes to Democrats. Bill and Hillary visited him many times, and Gore came to our offices too.

http://www.broadfoundation.org/about_foundations.html

it was a bone thrown to the masses who were becoming increasingly radicalized in the gilded age - socialism, anarchism, syndicalism. it took the combined efforts of these "philanthropists" and the government (eugene debs in prison for "sedition") to crush the socialist movement and brand it unacceptable to the american working class.

they did it to keep their heads.

That's why I threw in, "at least projected an image of benevolence and social responsibility." The image of Rockefeller handing out dimes comes to mind.