“Robber Barons” is a Fictional Term

                  

The term “robber baron” was conjured up for the wrong reasons about a century ago, and continues to stay alive. It turns up conveniently in the media, which helped make the usage popular.

                       

Robber baron was originally used to maliciously represent

tycoons who developed our oil, steel, telegraph, railroad and other basic 19th century industrial revolution enterprises. The term is used to describe ruthless, dishonest businessmen, bankers or successful entrepreneurs.

                       

It took aggressive business people to succeed in those days. Rules were not the over-regulated variety of today. Were today’s in effect, much of the development of our own industrial growth would have been stifled. And consumer prices would not have been reduced as they were.(See the Earl J. Weinreb NewsHole® comments and @BusinessNewshole at Twitter.)