Let's pay 16 year olds $31.2k to sweep floors!!!!

[whatthehey]

128. I can quibble with the emphasis but not the facts

The bits they are missing or gloss over is that it was a horrible job with terrible conditions. We hold up auto jobs as desirable today and while they are still tedious and demanding they are far better than Ford's first efforts at Taylorism. On the job workers were forbidden to so much as talk to their workmates, let alone use bathrooms or sit. Nothing that could distract from unbroken attention and productive motion was allowed. This was long before UAW piece rate maximums. Off the job a company detective force (really, not hyperbole!) monitored their social and personal behavior far more intrusively than the Forbes article mentions. Ford had particular issues with profanity, drunkenness and weight gain.

So yes the idea that he raised wages to make his cars affordable is bogus. What's not however is that he did give his employees, or at least those with either the servility or patience to put up with his crap, more disposible income which did indeed allow them to buy more of whatever they wanted, including cars if they chose. Ford really did essentially propel Detroit to, temporary, economic success, but in reality he did it despite his own weird and misguided intent.