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JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER was the richest man in the U.S. in 1918, which happens to be the year my father was born. His $1.2 billion net worth at that time would have the buying power today of more than $24 billion.
Rockefeller, with his massive wealth, could purchase things most of us can only dream about, such as sprawling estates and gigantic yachts. Still, in many ways, today’s millionaire next door has more purchasing power than this billionaire of yesteryear. Consider the things that Rockefeller—despite all his riches—couldn’t buy at any price in 1918:
Internet access. Personal computers didn’t exist in 1918, let alone the internet. Today, we regular folks have access to an almost infinite array of knowledge, news and entertainment. Trillions of dollars of technological development since Rockefeller’s time have made this marvel possible.
Modern vehicles. Rockefeller had a collection of automobiles, but nothing he owned could come close to the performance, comfort and reliability of today’s vehicles. His cars weren’t equipped with power steering, anti-lock brakes or even air-conditioning—which debuted in 1940. Vehicles in 1918 were subject to frequent breakdowns, causing inconvenience even for rich people.
Cutting-edge health care. Medical science has advanced exponentially since 1918. Despite having what’s been termed a nervous breakdown in his early 50s, Rockefeller generally seemed to enjoy good health. Still, had he suffered from any serious health issues, the medical help available to him would have been far less advanced than what most Americans have access to today. If his appendix had ruptured, like mine did early in life, he likely would have died.
Entertainment options. The motion picture industry was in its infancy in 1918. Rockefeller died in 1937. Blockbusters like The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind were released a couple of years after his death. Today, just about everybody—in their own private home theater—can watch these movies and thousands more that were never available to our billionaire.
Rockefeller had a deep love of music. I hope he preferred getting his music fixes from live performances. The fidelity of music played on the scratchy phonographs of his day was far inferior to that from even the low-end stereo systems of our time.
Portable telephones. Not only did Rockefeller never have the opportunity to use a smart phone, he also didn’t have access to any kind of wireless phone network. Only about a third of U.S. households had phones in 1918. If Rockefeller wanted to call one of them, he would have used his landline and gone through an operator.
Jet travel. Today’s billionaires often own private jets. This wasn’t an option for Rockefeller. In fact, with all his money, he never took a single flight on a jet plane—they weren’t invented until after his death. Commercial jets weren’t in use until the 1950s.
What should we make of all this? We enjoy amazing material advantages simply by virtue of being alive at this time in history. We have many phenomenal options not available to the richest man in the U.S. a century ago.
Still, I don’t think our increased purchasing power and exponential increase in choices have resulted in a corresponding increase in life satisfaction for most people. Mental health problems are skyrocketing, as are deaths of despair. It’s not hard to find numerous examples of ultra-wealthy entertainers or sports figures living miserable lives. Often, it seems that a contented celebrity is the exception.
Some of this apparent paradox can be explained by hedonic adaptation. When I purchased my first computer with internet access in 1997, I was enthralled for months. I would stay up late surfing the web and exploring the wonders of cyberspace. Of course, I had a painfully slow dial-up connection, but that was just the price of admission to this exciting new online world. A year later, I still enjoyed my computer, but the initial thrill was gone. Today, my computer is an important tool, but one I usually take for granted—unless, that is, my high-speed internet connection goes out.
I’ve had a lifelong interest in radio. Before television and computers became widespread, radio was the most popular means of delivering news and entertainment. The 1930s are considered radio’s golden age. I’ve listened to some old-time radio shows and found them very entertaining.
My family listened to an excellent modern radio program called Adventures in Odyssey when our children were young. I strongly suspect that a family gathered around the radio to listen to a show in the 1930s was more entertained than people today flipping through endless TV channels and TikTok videos.
In his 50s, at the height of his empire-building efforts, Rockefeller was a depressed man afflicted by digestive troubles. After he stepped away from running his businesses and started focusing on philanthropy, it seems his health greatly improved. He lived to a ripe old age, passing away shortly before turning age 98. Could it be that true riches are quite different from what’s conventionally considered wealth?
Ken Cutler lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has worked as an electrical engineer in the nuclear power industry for more than 38 years. There, he has become an informal financial advisor for many of his coworkers. Ken is involved in his church, enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife Lisa, is a shortwave radio hobbyist, and has a soft spot for cats and dogs. Follow Ken on X @Nuke_Ken and check out his earlier articles.
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The current titans of industry didn’t invent the internet or even its most evident applications. Many modest hands and as many international committees, meetings, conferences, made essential contributions to the collective creation of modern communications and entertainments; these were eased along with huge sums of government money and tax incentives, not to mention the concerns around the Cold War, the space race, and political and economic changes in the world. (The need for legitimate secure financial transactions, for example, remains a driving force in allowing strong encryption beyond political and military applications.) In the mix of all this, certain entrepreneurs of late have monetized and corralled and, yes, added their own twists to years of brilliant efforts and innovations. Universities and government agencies in this country and elsewhere train new generations of technology innovators.
Engineering produced cheap mass storage. But it took the general population to put YouTube to use creating and posting cat videos (tens of thousands daily, I read in one place).
I once read that heiress and billionaire Bunny Mellon was not so different than the rest of us, spreading Best Foods mayonnaise on Wonder bread when making a sandwich in her estate kitchen. She simply had better plates. (Not to diminish in any way the many gifts of Mellon, who redesigned the Rose Garden for Jackie Kennedy.).
We’ve since upgraded our food choices. But I once spent a day in St. Barts, and asked the cashier at the mini-mart in the harbor what he sold most to the people on the yachts. “Chips and salsa,” was his reply.
I love the St. Barts story!
Excellent points. How rich, indeed, we all are. The Talmud asks and answers, “Who is rich? He who knows what he has.”
At age 79 I have been retired for 13 years. Although children today have things we never dreamed of in the 1950s, I believe we had happier childhoods in those days. Times were simpler but many more families were intact and did things together.
Children were very creative in entertaining themselves and their friends.
Has anyone better snipe hunting? Listened in to a neighbor’s phone conversation on the shared party line. Reading was an important aspect of our lives as TV was not 24 by 7 and a zillion channels (we had 2 in our town). Comic books, the Hardy Boys, and other books from the library were a major source of entertainment, not to mention improving our reading ability.
Kids today have their noses in their phones, the Internet, video games and other forms of entertainment. We had the necessity of creativity, they do not. Kids today have a very challenging world to live in and cope with. I am very thankful that I grew up in a simpler time.
Still, I don’t think our increased purchasing power and exponential increase in choices have resulted in a corresponding increase in life satisfaction for most people.
Hedonic adaption is part of the answer, but so is the nature of the yardstick. It is not an absolute measure, it is based on comparison. Festinger in the 1950’s called this Social comparison theory and there are numerous variants. Rockefeller could look around and see that nobody had it better. He had choices and privileges matched perhaps only by royalty in Europe.
In absolute terms the present is better. And its fun to look back at how our ancestors lived. In 1940 nearly half of houses lacked hot piped water, a bathtub or shower, or a flush toilet. After WWII new houses were crammed with kids as the baby boom began but houses were only 1,000 sq feet. We may have actually known people who lived in this era, our parents and grandparents. Push back farther to the 1800’s or 1700’s and it’s hard to think of any of us getting by in the era.
I often thought in the early months of the pandemic how different things would have been if it had happened just 20 years earlier without high-speed Internet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams for work and school, streaming services to provide entertainment while stuck at home, apps to order food or grocery delivery, and so forth. I’m sure we would have figured it out, as people did during the Spanish flu or the Black Plague, but things transitioned a lot more seamlessly because it was 2020 and not 1970 or even 1990, let alone 1918.
This article has a number of dimensions. The first thing I was going to say was often I go to these historic homes of people that were wealthy 100 to 150 years ago and think I would never want to live there. The places seemed so primitive. Then, I got to the later part of your article. I am reminded of how when I watch old music videos (1980s and 1990s) and people are out having fun, they are doing it without mobile devices. Then I think of how nice the good old days were, however you define “good” and “old.”
Admittedly, I was struggling with this article until the last sentence brought it all into focus. I was getting tripped up by mixing financial wealth with what I was likening to examples of “progress”. I like Mr. Bond’s comment here and feel that it hits the nail on the head. Do the good ole’ days include walking the trail through the woods to your place of worship with your family, with a blunderbuss at the ready? How does that compare to your personal data being hacked today?
Whether or not anything is truly better now or the years before is, I believe, highly dependent on what life lens you’re looking and living through. What is, “progress”? Our best result might be that any so-called progress yields more good than harm, now and over time. I’d favor advances we’ve benefitted from in the medical field over the access to the Internet or smartphones, yet they are strongly linked in many ways. (Quite ironic as I type this on my iPad, having recently placed a prescription refill online.)
Good news – we somehow made it this far. Here’s to the better future we can strive for, no matter what our place in life.
Great articles often cause us to stop and think. Thank you for a great article.
Ken-Very much enjoyed the article. Having spent much of my career working for 3 companies that each had deep roots as original Rockefeller companies, I’ve always been a fan of JD history. As wealthy as he was, this article puts it in perspective how lucky, in many respects, we are today. Another one to add to the list….it is absolutely invaluable to talk and SEE relatives (especially grandkids!) on facebook calls routinely. Jim
What a great article, Ken. This is a thought I have pondered often, ever since touring the Vanderbilt mansion in Rhode Island on a sauna-hot day 30 years ago and realizing that for all their opulent luxury, they had limited options for heating and none for air conditioning. I’m more comfortable on a 95-degree day than Cornelius could ever have been.
As far as fully savoring what we have today, especially medically, I think about that constantly. These “good ol’ days” would have been inaccessible for me as little as ten years ago, before the breakthrough cancer treatment that saved my life was available. If it had come along six months later, I’d be dead. So for me every morning for the past eight years is a new gift and the best good old day imaginable.
I wonder who was more satisfied with his life, John Rockefeller or Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Elon takes ketamine for depression and Jeff Bezos is trying to turn back time as far as his looks.
I just finished Ron Chernow’s epic biography of Rockefeller, Titan, and I believe Rockefeller was a much happier man than Elan, maybe a bit more so than Bezos. One thing that pained Rockefeller were the many troubles of his children.
I have often commented that I feel lucky to be living at this time in history, but never have thought to put it in this context. We really do take our lives for granted. Really great observations Ken.
Ken – Your story reminds me of a very old and very dear family friend, who in his wisdom said to me “Don’t let anyone fool you, what we’re living right now are the good ole days”.
Nice article Ken. I’ve had similar thoughts; you did a great job of articulating them. My wife and I are currently on a road trip from NJ visiting family in Winston Salem, NC, then to Savannah, and finally Kiawah Island for a wedding. The trip has been quite comfortable and safe in a modern automobile, with AC, a curated music list via Spotify, convenient rest stops with modern plumbing, with food choices, coffee, and gas. If we had an electric vehicle there seems to be a decent amount of chargers. John D would envy us.
Very interesting Ken, but you know what, in this day and age you could look back only five years or so and make similar comparisons with progress in our lives.
We seem to forget the individuals mostly responsible for leaps forward in making our lives easier, better, more convenient.
That’s why I don’t begrudge the billionaires their wealth. Their overall contribution to society in many cases far offsets what the stock market has given them – while taking nothing from the rest of us.
Thanks Rich for this comment. It made me think a while.
I came up with…”An idea is worthless, unless it is acted on” A little over a year ago I finally took a leap and started to develop an adjunct safety device for automobiles. I’ve found that it’s not just click your heels and have it done.
It gives a fellow respect for those that have done so much! JD and many many others have my admiration, boy howdy!
I doubt that the world’s economy would be noticeably different if the none of the multi-billionaires had ever been born. For example, without Musk we would still have EVs and communication satellites. While Bezos is a brilliant entrepreneur, one or more others would have taken advantage of the technological advances in communications and logistics that allowed Amazon to become what it is. No one can seriously argue that there wouldn’t be a Facetime/Meta alternative without Zuckerman.
Bernard Arnault (Christian Dior, LVMH) currently tops the list of the world’s richest people with a net wealth of $231 billion which is almost 10 times as much as what Rockefeller was worth in today’s dollars.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012715/5-richest-people-world.asp#:~:text=Bernard%20Arnault%2C%20chairman%20of%20LVMH,Gates%2C%20and%20Oracle's%20Larry%20Ellison.
Not sure of your point. It’s not the names, it’s that someone creates something
Well said.
Great reminder post about the hedonic treadmill—hard to stop and appreciate how lucky we are today as we live our daily lives just putting one foot in front of another. Regular U.S. women’s lives have especially benefited in the past 100 years, with the invention of so many helpful home appliances. And I love how my Alexa can instantly deliver any music I want at any time of day or night via a simple verbal request—no king ever had that.
Perhaps thinking of my great fortune compared to the Rockefellers of yesteryear might help keep my blood pressure down next time I’m in password hell trying to sign into something. Worth a try.
Give Dashlane a try to lower your BP with logins.
Ken, this is such a good article, one that points toward the essence of true happiness. I often think along these same lines, asking myself if I’ve let my contentment be propped up by my possessions, and what I would do if they disappeared. Am I thankful for my easy life compared to countless generations before me, and even billions more folks sharing my own time? We can easily lose sight of our blessings.