The Greatest Irony

The Hudson River has long been considered an essential piece of the puzzle in the establishment of New York as an industrial powerhouse in the late 19th century and earlier. Contributing economically as both a means of transportation and a source of merchandise (i.e. ice harvesting), the Hudson played an important role in the growth of New York City and the subsequent social structure that came to dominate urban society during the late 1800's. The business the Hudson provided stretched far beyond the borders of the state itself, as it indirectly contributed to cotton trade with the South and the shipping of textiles overseas. Yet despite the positive effects of big business on the region and the rest of the country, the rise of industry left a devastating mark on the environment surrounding the Hudson.
During the last few months we've studied numerous aspects of the Hudson from its history to the topographical makeup of the river floor, and yet one irony seems to present itself again and again: The entrepreneurs and opportunists who made a fortune off the services of the Hudson did little to protect their capital. In their haste to make a quick buck, they overlooked the lasting environmental effects their actions would have on the region. As an economics major, I can't help but look at this from an economic standpoint. If a business-owner operated a factory that produced 200 cars a day at maximum efficiency (i.e. maxed out labor force, all machines in use, etc.), wouldn't he do all in his power to make sure his factory continued to operate at maximum efficiency? He would certainly take all the necessary precautions to ensure that his machines didn't break down, that his workers had incentives to continue to produce at their maximum output and so forth. Yet the robber barons who capitalized off the fruit of the Hudson did little to protect it. Now, a number of wealthy businessmen took precautions to protect against certain developments along the coast of the Hudson in regions where they tended to have lavish residences by buying tracts of land to prevent drilling for clay and other forms of scenic destruction. In Tom Lewis' The Hudson, the author describes the ice industry as an extremely profitable, albeit short-lived economic venture, yet the icehouses that operated right on the shores of the Hudson belched out smoke that tainted the surrounding environment. Other industries established along the coast like steel-manufacturing polluted the waters of the Hudson, and in turn decreasing the quality of ice drawn from the Hudson, killing fish and the livestock that fed off them, and damaging the overall efficiency of flora to flourish. Wouldn't it have made more sense for business-owners of the time to take the necessary steps to protect the Hudson so that they could continue to exploit it to it's full potential for years to come? Or was American greed simply so overwhelming that it blinded industrialists who profited off the waters of the Hudson?