Another comment pointed out that at 25, Barnum exploited an old black woman as a slave in a sideshow, eventually after she died selling tickets to her dissection.
At 45, Barnum destroyed a true engineer-entrepreneur. In an era where clocks were essential for organizing commerce as the country grew, Chauncey Jerome revolutionized clockmaking by using stamped-out brass gears - both cheaper and more reliable, among the first shifts from craft to manufacturing. Then Barnum suckered Jerome into a venture that destroyed all the wealth and business Jerome had accumulated.
But we don't directly have that kind of impact... crypto, brick-and-mortar businesses, journalism if not democracy, the rise of successful surveillance states, the ubiquity of software rented instead of bought coupled with complete absence of warranty, digital services coupled to force arbitration clauses...
At 45, Barnum destroyed a true engineer-entrepreneur. In an era where clocks were essential for organizing commerce as the country grew, Chauncey Jerome revolutionized clockmaking by using stamped-out brass gears - both cheaper and more reliable, among the first shifts from craft to manufacturing. Then Barnum suckered Jerome into a venture that destroyed all the wealth and business Jerome had accumulated.
But we don't directly have that kind of impact... crypto, brick-and-mortar businesses, journalism if not democracy, the rise of successful surveillance states, the ubiquity of software rented instead of bought coupled with complete absence of warranty, digital services coupled to force arbitration clauses...