I find another interesting part when he talks about how the railroad could not have been built by slave labor and uses the Russians as an example of trying this and being unsuccessful. He also talks about the engineers and he says that they were ambitious "as only Americans can be." Why does he say this? Is he being irrationally jingoistic?
This photograph is probably the most famous photo taken of one of the greatest building projects in this country's history -- the moment when workers drove the golden spike and completed the Transcontinental Railroad. As I've said before, I highly recommend that you read Ambrose's book, "Nothing Like It In The World," his book about the building of this railroad. In this chapter, I found Ambrose's description of the men who led the way on this project very interesting. At the end of the building, after they became rich, they were vilified (look it up) for their wealth and what was viewed as their greed and corruption. As Ambrose describes them, they were men who put a lot of their own personal wealth (and names) on the line in order to get this railroad built. They were men who took a huge risk and could have ended up destroyed. Given this way of thinking, did they deserve everything they got, in terms of wealth? And by that token, can that same theory be used today to describe the CEOs of large companies that make $50 or $100 million per year? Do they deserve it? Do the two men who created Google deserve to be billionaires? Did the builders of the railroad deserve it? How do we determine who deserves it and who doesn't and how much is too much?
I find another interesting part when he talks about how the railroad could not have been built by slave labor and uses the Russians as an example of trying this and being unsuccessful. He also talks about the engineers and he says that they were ambitious "as only Americans can be." Why does he say this? Is he being irrationally jingoistic?
5 Comments
Andrew
4/11/2010 12:02:37 pm
1. Yes and no, some of those men did it only for the money, others were really dedicated to the project. The men who created Google deserve what they have also because they created it. Its not like they were free loaders and other people really worked on it. If you create something and it turns out to be a huge success then you deserve the outcome. The builders of the railroads deserved everything they earned times ten. They had worked very hard and went through a lot of things from withstanding the weather to working from sunrise to sunset. It depends on what you do to get the money and how you get their.
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Andreina
4/14/2010 11:58:24 am
1. I think they did deserve all the wealth they got for helping create the railroad just like the men who created Google. They created a source engine that has become useful to anybody trying to search information in the worldwide web. The only problem with the men that helped create the railroad was how greedy they became after it and how they used the money they gained. I think we should determine it by figuring out how much work the person puts into a project and how well the ending result is. When you are giving money away based on work or an ending result too much is too much when other people who helped with the job isn’t getting enough credit and pay. I think Ambrose says that “as only Americans can be” when he is referring to the engineers because the railroad was a great American invention.
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Katherine
4/18/2010 04:04:41 am
1. I believe that when a person works hard they deserve a high pay. The men who built the railroad definitely deserved the amount of wealth they received just like the ones who created Google. If the railroad builders put their lives at risk to create it, then why would someone question the fact that they became wealthy for doing so? I think that people who upbraided these men were jealous. I think that a way to determine when how much is too much, is by seeing how much and how hard a person worked in order to deserve huge amounts of money. I think the reason that he mentioned that slaves could not have built the road is probably because they didn't have the knowledge on architecture or the money to invest in the project.
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justin
4/19/2010 03:22:50 am
1. I do think that they deserve what they got in terms of wealth. This
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Randy
4/25/2010 01:11:24 pm
1. Only a hard worker deserve everything that comes their way. If it helps other people or the world, like the railroads and Google, then it should be deserved. I like what Katherine said about jealousy. If people want to hate on your success, then let them hate because that's all they're good for anyway. It's the money-makers that stay on top of life.
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