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35-562: The Lee Foundation was established in March 1952 with a funding of $ 3.5 million from business magnate Lee Kong Chian. Lee had been donating to schools like Kuo Chuan Girls' School , Nan Chiau Girls' High School , Chinese High School , Methodist Girls' School , St Margaret's School , Singapore Chinese Girls' School , Anglo Chinese School (ACS), the University of Malaya and Nanyang University . He had also donated to community institutions such as

70-503: A Darwinist age, Vanderbilt developed a reputation as a plunderer who took no prisoners." Hal Bridges said that the term represented the idea that "business leaders in the United States from about 1865 to 1900 were, on the whole, a set of avaricious rascals who habitually cheated and robbed investors and consumers, corrupted government, fought ruthlessly among themselves, and in general carried on predatory activities comparable to those of

105-442: A distinction between robber barons and captains of industry. Students will uncover some of the less honorable deeds as well as the shrewd business moves and highly charitable acts of the great industrialists and financiers. It has been argued that only because such people were able to amass great amounts of capital could our country become the world's greatest industrial power. Some of the actions of these men, which could only happen in

140-480: A helpless democracy." Hostile cartoonists might dress the offenders in royal garb to underscore the offense against democracy. The first such usage was against Vanderbilt, for taking money from high-priced, government-subsidized shippers, in order to not compete on their routes. Political cronies had been granted special shipping routes by the state, but told legislators their costs were so high that they needed to charge high prices and still receive extra money from

175-542: A period of economic laissez faire, resulted in poor conditions for workers, but in the end, may also have enabled our present day standard of living. This debate about the morality of certain business practices has continued in the popular culture, as in the performances in Europe in 2012 by Bruce Springsteen , who sang about bankers as "greedy thieves" and "robber barons". During the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011,

210-551: Is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the creation or ownership of multiple lines of enterprise . The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or services are widely consumed. Such individuals have been known by different terms throughout history, such as robber barons , captains of industry , moguls, oligarchs , plutocrats , or tai-pans . The term magnate derives from

245-696: Is a term first applied as social criticism by 19th century muckrakers and others to certain wealthy, powerful, and unethical 19th-century American businessmen. The term appeared in that use as early as the August 1870 issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. By the late 19th century, the term was typically applied to businessmen who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. Those practices included unfettered consumption and destruction of natural resources , influencing high levels of government , wage slavery , squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and/or trusts that control

280-795: The Hokkien Huay Kuan Building, the Chinese Swimming Club and the National Library . Several institutions took on the name of Lee Kong Chian's father, Lee Kuo Chuan, as Lee had initially requested them not to use his name. Examples of institutions and buildings named after the elder Lee includes the Kuo Chuan Presbyterian School, Lee Kuo Chuan auditoriums in ACS (Barker Road) and Maris Stella High School , indoor stadium of Anglican High School , Lee Kuo Chuan Nursery Home and

315-665: The Japanese word taikun ( 大君 ) , which means "great lord", used as a title for the shōgun . The word entered the English language in 1857 with the return of Commodore Perry to the United States. US President Abraham Lincoln was humorously referred to as the Tycoon by his aides John Nicolay and John Hay . The term spread to the business community, where it has been used ever since. Modern business magnates are entrepreneurs that amass on their own or wield substantial family fortunes in

350-616: The Latin word magnates (plural of magnas ), meaning "great man" or "great nobleman". The term mogul is an English corruption of mughal , Persian or Arabic for "Mongol". It alludes to emperors of the Mughal Empire in Early Modern India , who possessed great power and storied riches capable of producing wonders of opulence, such as the Taj Mahal . The term tycoon derives from

385-590: The Rhine river. Some of the most notorious of these were Thomas von Absberg and Götz von Berlichingen , who both made a career out of highway robbery and brigandry. The metaphor appeared as early as February 9, 1859, when The New York Times used it to characterize the business practices of Cornelius Vanderbilt . Historian T. J. Stiles says the metaphor "conjures up visions of titanic monopolists who crushed competitors, rigged markets, and corrupted government. In their greed and power, legend has it, they held sway over

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420-1147: The Distinguished Patron of the Arts Award by the National Arts Council for several years, and the National Volunteerism and Philanthropy Award Special Recognition Award in 2004 for Pioneers of philanthropy work in Singapore. Chairman Lee Seng Gee was awarded the Distinguished Service Order by the President of Singapore. In line with its original mission, the Lee Foundation continues to drive and promote education in socially relevant disciplines, e.g. in health and medical-related fields, and especially for disadvantaged students in Singapore, Malaysia and worldwide. Business magnate A business magnate , also known as an industrialist or tycoon ,

455-651: The Lee Kuo Chuan Creche. Lee Foundation was also registered in Malaysia in 1960. It was reported that Lee Kong Chian transferred half his shares in Lee Rubber Group to the foundation in 1964, it is alleged that he had bequeathed half of his wealth as proceeds to the foundation in his will. Lee Seng Gee , eldest son of Lee Kong Chian and chairman of the Lee Rubber Group, was the chairman of the foundation from 1957 till his death in 2016. Board members include members of

490-517: The Lee family such as businessman Lee Seng Tee (second son of Lee Kong Chian), YS Lee, Lee Han Shih (investor and former journalist for the Business Times ), Lee ST, (director of OCBC), Lee Chien Shih and Alan Lee Shih Hua. Former board members include the former chairman of OCBC Lee Seng Wee . The foundation and the family has been known to keep a very low media profile. Since its creation up till 2015,

525-560: The Octopus, devouring all in its path. In the twentieth century and the twenty-first they became entrepreneurs, necessary business revolutionaries, ruthlessly changing existing practices and demonstrating the protean nature of American capitalism. Their new corporations also transmuted and became manifestations of the "Visible Hand," managerial rationality that eliminated waste, increased productivity and brought bourgeois values to replace those of financial buccaneers. Historian John Tipple examined

560-668: The cultural persuasion of which it was an expression, drew on a deeply rooted feeling that was partly religious and partly egalitarian and democratic, a sensibility stretching back to William Jennings Bryan, Andrew Jackson, and Tom Paine. However, contrary opinions by academic historians began to appear as the Depression ended. Business historian Allan Nevins advanced the "Industrial Statesman" thesis in his John D. Rockefeller: The Heroic Age of American Enterprise (2 vols., 1940), arguing that while Rockefeller engaged in unethical and illegal business practices, he also helped to bring order to

595-483: The foundation donated approximately S$ 1 billion to various causes, regardless of race, language, religion, nationality, and geographical location. Seventy-five percent of that amount went to education. Notable contributions included the following The Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Initiative on Southeast Asia, founded in 2007, establishes a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship on Southeast Asia to help advance scholarly and policy-relevant consideration of this region. In 2015,

630-504: The industrial chaos of the day. According to Nevins, it was Gilded Age capitalists who, by imposing order and stability on competitive business, made the United States the foremost economy by the 20th century. In 1958 Bridges reported that, "The most vehement and persistent controversy in business history has been that waged by the critics and defenders of the "robber baron" concept of the American businessman." Richard White , historian of

665-440: The industrialists who were called robber barons have a complicated legacy in the history of American economic and social life. In the book's original foreword, he claims the robber barons: "more or less knowingly played the leading roles in an age of industrial revolution. Even their quarrels, intrigues and misadventures (too often treated as merely diverting or picturesque) are part of the mechanism of our history. Under their hands

700-534: The machinations of an easily located set of villains—in this case, the big businessmen of America. This assumption was clearly implicit in almost all of the criticism of the period. American historian Matthew Josephson further popularized the term during the Great Depression in his book, published in 1934. Josephson's view was that, like the medieval German princes, American big businessmen had amassed huge fortunes immorally, unethically, and unjustly. This theme

735-560: The market , and schemes to sell stock at inflated prices to unsuspecting investors . The term combines the sense of criminal ("robber") and illegitimate aristocracy (“baron”) in a republic. The term robber baron derives from the Raubritter ( robber knights ), the medieval German lords who charged nominally illegal tolls (unauthorized by the Holy Roman Emperor ) on the primitive roads crossing their lands, or larger tolls along

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770-547: The nickname for their sports teams. However, school administrators disallowed it, saying it was disrespectful to the school's founder, Leland Stanford . In academia, the education division of the National Endowment for the Humanities has prepared a lesson plan for schools asking whether "robber baron" or " captain of industry " is the better term. They state: In this lesson, you and your students will attempt to establish

805-401: The part of the new captains of industry . To organize and exploit the resources of a nation upon a gigantic scale, to regiment its farmers and workers into harmonious corps of producers, and to do this only in the name of an uncontrolled appetite for private profit—here surely is the great inherent contradiction whence so much disaster, outrage and misery has flowed. Charles R. Geisst says, "in

840-671: The process of building or running their own businesses. Some are widely known in connection with these entrepreneurial activities, others through highly-visible secondary pursuits such as philanthropy , political fundraising and campaign financing, and sports team ownership or sponsorship. The terms mogul , tycoon , and baron were often applied to late-19th- and early-20th-century North American business magnates in extractive industries such as mining , logging and petroleum , transportation fields such as shipping and railroads , manufacturing such as automaking and steelmaking , in banking , as well as newspaper publishing. Their dominance

875-400: The renovation of our economic life proceeded relentlessly: large-scale production replaced the scattered, decentralized mode of production; industrial enterprises became more concentrated, more “efficient” technically, and essentially “coöperative,” where they had been purely individualistic and lamentably wasteful. But all this revolutionizing effort is branded with the motive of private gain on

910-419: The robber barons of medieval Europe." Historian Richard White argues that the builders of the transcontinental railroads have attracted a great deal of attention but the interpretations are contradictory: at first very hostile and then very favorable. White writes that they were depicted as: Robber Barons, standing for a Gilded Age of corruption, monopoly, and rampant individualism. Their corporations were

945-460: The shrinking middle class. In contrast, conservative American historian Burton W. Folsom Jr. argues that the robber barons were either political entrepreneurs (who lobby government for subsidies and monopoly rights), or market entrepreneurs (who innovate and reduce costs to provide the best good or service at the lowest price). Political entrepreneurs do long-term harm to the economy with their monopolies and subsidies. This provides politicians with

980-540: The sister foundation in Malaysia also donated a total of RM50 million to Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) for the construction of its new campus building in Sungai Long, Kuala Lumpur. In honor of the foundation's founder, the university has named its engineering and science faculty as the Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science. The generosity of the foundation has earned them many accolades such as

1015-492: The taxpayers as funding. Vanderbilt's private shipping company began running the same routes, charging a fraction of the price, making a large profit without taxpayer subsidy. The state-funded shippers then began paying Vanderbilt money to not ship on their route. A critic of this tactic drew a political comic depicting Vanderbilt as a feudal robber baron extracting a toll. In his 1934 book The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists 1861-1901 , Matthew Josephson argued that

1050-430: The term was used by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in his attacks on Wall Street. The metaphor has also been used to characterize Russian oligarchs allied to Vladimir Putin . The leaders of Big Tech companies have all been described as being modern-day robber barons, particularly Jeff Bezos because of his influence on his newspaper, The Washington Post . Their rising wealth and power stands in contrast with

1085-455: The transcontinental railroads, stated in 2011 he has no use for the concept, which has been killed off by historians Robert Wiebe and Alfred Chandler . He notes that "Much of the modern history of corporations is a reaction against the Robber Barons and fictions." In the popular culture the metaphor continues. In 1975 the student body of Stanford University voted to use "Robber Barons" as

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1120-461: The writings of the 50 most influential analysts who used the robber baron model in the 1865–1914 period. He argued: The originators of the Robber Baron concept were not the injured, the poor, the faddists, the jealous, or a dispossessed elite, but rather a frustrated group of observers led at last by protracted years of harsh depression to believe that the American dream of abundant prosperity for all

1155-456: Was a hopeless myth. ... Thus the creation of the Robber Baron stereotype seems to have been the product of an impulsive popular attempt to explain the shift in the structure of American society in terms of the obvious. Rather than make the effort to understand the intricate processes of change, most critics appeared to slip into the easy vulgarizations of the "devil-view" of history which ingenuously assumes that all human misfortunes can be traced to

1190-1520: Was known as the Second Industrial Revolution , the Gilded Age , or the Robber Baron Era . Examples of business magnates in the western world include historical figures such as pottery entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood , oilmen John D. Rockefeller and Fred C. Koch , automobile pioneer Henry Ford , aviation pioneer Howard Hughes , shipping and railroad veterans Aristotle Onassis , Cornelius Vanderbilt , Leland Stanford , Jay Gould and James J. Hill , steel innovator Andrew Carnegie , newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst , poultry entrepreneur Arthur Perdue , retail merchant Sam Walton , and bankers J. P. Morgan and Mayer Amschel Rothschild . Contemporary industrial tycoons include e-commerce entrepreneur Jeff Bezos , investor Warren Buffett , computer programmers Bill Gates and Paul Allen , technology innovator Steve Jobs , vacuum cleaner retailer Sir James Dyson , media proprietors Sumner Redstone , Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch , industrial entrepreneur Elon Musk , steel investor Lakshmi Mittal , telecommunications investor Carlos Slim , Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson , Formula 1 executive Bernie Ecclestone , and internet entrepreneurs Larry Page and Sergey Brin . Robber baron (industrialist) Robber baron

1225-615: Was popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the public often expressed scorn for big business . Historian Steve Fraser notes that the mood was sharply hostile toward big business: Biographies of Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller were often laced with moral censure, warning that "tories of industry" were a threat to democracy and that parasitism, aristocratic pretension and tyranny are an inevitable consequence of concentrated wealth, whether accumulated dynastically or more impersonally by faceless corporations. This scholarship, and

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