Worse than this it is said (if it could be worse), many factory, mill, and mine owners were really sadistic and immoral men.  They took advantage of the women working for them to satisfy their lust.  The work was invariably hard and degrading. 

Little children it is said were forced into the mills, forced to work long hours, and were beaten and starved if they disobeyed, deprived of their schooling and sometimes even chained to their benches so that the owners could extract the last ounce of energy from their frail and emaciated bodies.

Now, that's a pretty colorful summary of the kind of thing one reads about, and the criticism on its face is devastating.

Such accounts make it appear that indeed, governments must intervene in the market, for businessmen are not only thoughtless, selfish, and greedy, but they are absolutely sub-human in the way they will torture, mis-use, abuse, and exploit their fellows.

Clearly, if most businessmen are truly of this character even in part, then labor unions and governmental regulations and curbs against such abuses can not only be explained, but justified and demanded!

These "Robber Barons" were the giants in finance and industry during the period of 1875 to roughly 1910. 

These were the big "moguls" who didn't care about humanity, or anyone but themselves.  The almighty dollar was their only god.  They were evil incarnate, in the eyes of many.

Finally, we come to the Great Depression, or that period in the United States between the collapse of the stock market in 1929, and the start of the United State's participation in World War II in 1941.

Here it is alleged that what caused the Great Depression was the absence of laws during the 1920's (the "Roaring 20's") that would prevent the greed of business from manifesting.

As a result it is said, the men in productive operations over-produced in search of profits, creating surpluses that could not be consumed by the market.

Of course, once the businessmen discovered that they were saddled with these large surpluses, they simply closed their factories and businesses until the existing inventories could be sold, and went to vacation in the Riviera.

This threw all the working people out of work and created a terrible condition that was not cured until government intervened and introduced large welfare programs and public works programs, legislating high wages even when non-productive work was performed.

Serious charges, to be sure.  But is any of it actually true?

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