Re:The company that bribed the world
by georgecmu on Wednesday March 30, 2016 @03:34PM
(#11392259)
The world is extremely corrupt. Widespread corruption is yet another issue hanging over our civilization which we've never had to deal with before in our history. People in the western world usually don't realize just how deep the rabbit holes go everywhere around the world and it's very sad.
This seems to be a rather whitewashed view of "our civilization". For instance, I'm sure you've heard of Stanford? Not the university, but the guy who founded it: Leland Stanford. The famous philanthropist with an exceptional business and political background:
Stanford’s business career rose in tandem with his political career. He participated in the founding of California’s Republican Party and was elected Governor in 1861. That same year, he became one of the four principal investors in the Central Pacific Railroad, which Congress authorized in 1862 to build the eastbound section of the first transcontinental railroad.
In 1885, he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Political maneuvering made Stanford a very rich man. He participated in the worst practices of the Gilded Age: stock watering, kickbacks, rebates, bribes, collusion, monopoly. There is no acquitting Stanford on this front; his participation in such schemes is amply recorded in his letters. One historian of the transcontinental railroads argues that the principals of the era made clear their unsavory activities in correspondence in part “because the dimmer lights among them, such as Leland Stanford, had to have so much explained to them.”
Stanford is best remembered today, however, not for corruption but for a tribute to his only child.
This seems to be a rather whitewashed view of "our civilization". For instance, I'm sure you've heard of Stanford? Not the university, but the guy who founded it: Leland Stanford. The famous philanthropist with an exceptional business and political background:
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/l...
Stanford’s business career rose in tandem with his political career. He participated in the founding of California’s Republican Party and was elected Governor in 1861. That same year, he became one of the four principal investors in the Central Pacific Railroad, which Congress authorized in 1862 to build the eastbound section of the first transcontinental railroad.
In 1885, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Political maneuvering made Stanford a very rich man. He participated in the worst practices of the Gilded Age: stock watering, kickbacks, rebates, bribes, collusion, monopoly. There is no acquitting Stanford on this front; his participation in such schemes is amply recorded in his letters. One historian of the transcontinental railroads argues that the principals of the era made clear their unsavory activities in correspondence in part “because the dimmer lights among them, such as Leland Stanford, had to have so much explained to them.” Stanford is best remembered today, however, not for corruption but for a tribute to his only child.