bryanweatherly
10-31-03, 04:39 PM
During the first half of the 1800s US whaling ships killed an average of 15,000 whales annually to produce 6-10 million gallons of oil and 1.6-5.6 pounds of bone per whale. These whale related resources provided many useful consumer products. In the year 1900 there were only 50,000 whales left. At the rate that whales were being killed, they surely should have been extint by 1910. Who saved them??
The whales salvation can be attributed to J.D. Rockefeller, the founder and owner of Standard Oil. Rockefeller made the production of kerosene a commercial success which replaced whale oil because kerosene was so much cheaper and more readily available. Whales were not the only beneficiary of Rockefeller's success though. He also saved the Galapagos turtle, which was almost driven to extinction by the appetites of hungry whaling crews.
The inventions of steel and the automobile also helped save the whales by eliminating the demand for whale bones in corsets and buggy whips on carriages.
So the next time you are happy to see whales swimming through the ocean, don't thank Greenpeace or early century animal rights activists, thank J.D. Rockefeller and other champions of capitalism. It is another example of positive side effects of somebody pursuing their own rational selfish interests.
The information from this post came from an article in "The Freeman" called "How Capitalism Saved the Whales," by James S. Robbins which was summarized by Walter Williams in a column at [www.CapitalismMagazine.com].
The whales salvation can be attributed to J.D. Rockefeller, the founder and owner of Standard Oil. Rockefeller made the production of kerosene a commercial success which replaced whale oil because kerosene was so much cheaper and more readily available. Whales were not the only beneficiary of Rockefeller's success though. He also saved the Galapagos turtle, which was almost driven to extinction by the appetites of hungry whaling crews.
The inventions of steel and the automobile also helped save the whales by eliminating the demand for whale bones in corsets and buggy whips on carriages.
So the next time you are happy to see whales swimming through the ocean, don't thank Greenpeace or early century animal rights activists, thank J.D. Rockefeller and other champions of capitalism. It is another example of positive side effects of somebody pursuing their own rational selfish interests.
The information from this post came from an article in "The Freeman" called "How Capitalism Saved the Whales," by James S. Robbins which was summarized by Walter Williams in a column at [www.CapitalismMagazine.com].