That whole era..the Vanderbilts, Carnegie, etc. Ans there wasn't much of a middle class. You tended to be rich or poor.

One fact there is tha, only FIVE YEARS after Standard Oil was broken up (thank you, female journalist Ida Tarbell!), he was a billionaire. That might be trillionaire status today.

At least in those days, rich men tended to give a lot of money away. Carnegie, to his credit, built libraries all over the country.