The Industrial Revolution created the development of the middle class.
It created wealth that we never would've imagined possible before. John Rockefeller may have lost his court case, but the smaller companies created from Standard Oil will go on to become corporate giants with names like Exxon, Mobil and Chevron and John Rockefeller is a shareholder in each new company. It's ironic, isn't it I mean, it's a great moment in American history and it established the principle that monopolistic practices should not be for the future and that sounds really good. Except now they were all separate and my great grandfather had large amounts of stock in every one of them. He made more money than he ever made in his life.