Thomas Edison Journal 1

Thomas Edison was one of the main catalysts of the Industrial Revolution. Not only did his inventions, which sparked the power generation, change the United States, but so did his economic ideas. He expressed his views on the U.S. economy in his "Treatise on Economic Policy and Business." In this document he highlighted many factors that would help create a successful U.S. economy. The interesting thing about this is the fact that Edison based success on human mentality more than human action. Edison believed that economic prosperity lied in the hearts of the business man, not in what was in their pocket. His ideas were based on creating fair pricings, engaging in written agreements, fair quality of products, and other accommodations that would create a reasonable atmosphere to create a business. Edison thought that the economy was imbalanced and based on selfishness, the country would fail. This imbalance is only effective when it involves the wealth of others, who have a right to their money, but will be dealt higher taxes.  Edison not only advocates for morale in business being the right thing to do, but also being a successful thing to do. Most people are unable to propose ideas that provide these two important variables. Success and morals are two of the most important values to a man and the fact that they are able to accomplish both is one of the most appealing ideas that anyone, of Edison’s decade or even the present decade, could think of. When looking at the most successful in the economy, past and present, they were all very smart and selfless at the same time. People such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bernie Madoff were selfish in business and lost more than just money because of it. These men lost friends and family because they valued money and themselves over others and this ended up causing these men to lose large sums of money. Edison knew that these men would end up in situations where they would lose because of it and used his Treatise to inform others about the effect of moral on business.

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