The FedEx founder gave the Postal Service the competition it needed to become better at its job.
FedEx founder Fred Smith, who died last week at age 80, was a committed philanthropist. He sank millions into renovating sports stadiums, funded zoo exhibits, and endowed scholarships at historically black colleges and universities. Like other visionary businessmen, however, Smith’s legacy almost certainly will be how he made his riches rather than how he spent them.
It’s fashionable these days to dump on “oligarchs.” Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have drawn large crowds at left-wing political rallies denouncing the supposed villainy of billionaire moguls. But many of our greatest industrial pioneers—from Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates—amassed their fortunes by increasing social mobility and enriching the lives of others.
The Ford Foundation has spent billions of dollars on poverty initiatives, human-rights advocacy and other selected causes, yet Henry Ford’s most significant achievement was developing the moving assembly line in the 1910s, which transformed manufacturing. Ford made automobiles accessible to America’s burgeoning middle class, expanded job opportunities, and accelerated the expansion of related rubber and steel industries.
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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