People today who complain about the automobile's pollution have no idea how much more pollution there was before the automobile came along. In New York City, for example, the 40,000 horses that were the backbone of the city's transportation, before the automobile, produced 400 tons of manure per working day, along with 20,000 gallons of urine.
At one time, people like Rockefeller, Edison, Ford and the Wright brothers were regarded as heroes, for having opened vast new possibilities for other human beings. The fact that they got rich doing it was an incidental part of the story.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/01/25/new_heroes_vs_old_108645.html
It's remarkable how good humans are at relativizing progress, assuming the current state is normal, and developing an expectation that things should be better than they are - no matter how much better things have become.
The article is also a great example of how folks make a lot of money absent government collusion - you have to provide a product or service that a lot of folks are willing to buy at a price that allows for a profit. In other words, you can only make a lot of money if people choose to give it to you. It's the pinnacle of cooperative human behavior.
At one time, people like Rockefeller, Edison, Ford and the Wright brothers were regarded as heroes, for having opened vast new possibilities for other human beings. The fact that they got rich doing it was an incidental part of the story.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/01/25/new_heroes_vs_old_108645.html
It's remarkable how good humans are at relativizing progress, assuming the current state is normal, and developing an expectation that things should be better than they are - no matter how much better things have become.
The article is also a great example of how folks make a lot of money absent government collusion - you have to provide a product or service that a lot of folks are willing to buy at a price that allows for a profit. In other words, you can only make a lot of money if people choose to give it to you. It's the pinnacle of cooperative human behavior.
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