dagblog - Comments for "Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford"

You can fire people for their

Aaron Carine — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 13:55:13 +0000

In reply to Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford

You can fire people for their political beliefs? Have the courts made any decision about this?

This page

Robert Hale — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 04:47:10 +0000

In reply to Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford

This page

http://dagblog.com/comment/reply/14648#comment-form

pried into the loves [lives?] of Ford's workers

Are the majority of the

AmericanDreamer — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:26:23 +0000

In reply to The $5 a day wage, which was

Are the majority of the current placeholder's in corporate America better or worse than Ford in how they 'see' and feel about the workers/employees?

I don't know about a majority but some of Walmart's policies creep me out.

For me the larger point is that in a high-unemployment economy where decent jobs are increasingly scarce and unions are relatively small and under fierce assault, employees or wannabe employees are willing to tolerate more abuse in exchange for a paycheck. Larger and more politically influential employers, and their advocacy organizations, oppose societal full employment policies because it gives them less leverage. (The ones who will say so publicly typically give as their reason that full unemployment necessarily leads to high and intolerable inflation.)

As long as we have gross economic (and political) power imbalances of the sort we have now, the choice of how to exploit those power imbalances will remain in the hands of those who "enjoy" them. It should be seen as a given that some will exploit such overweening power in ways that are more problematic and even offensive to employees and other citizens, whereas others will not.

If your friend hasn't

Ramona — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 23:59:22 +0000

In reply to When I lived near one of

If your friend hasn't already, tell him to read "The Flivver King", Upton Sinclair's scathing novel about Henry Ford, and "Henry Ford and the Jews", by Neil Baldwin. I have both of them and would be glad to lend them to him if he's interested.

When I lived near one of

Ramona — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 23:43:20 +0000

In reply to Republicans also do this when

When I lived near one of Henry Ford's mills in suburban Detroit I covered the 50th Anniversary of the opening of one of the elementary schools he built for the kids of the mill-workers. I talked to a woman who had been a little girl when the mill was open, and she went to school there. She told me that Ford showed up at many of the school functions and always brought little gifts for the kids--sometimes apples, sometimes pencils--but the kids were a little afraid of him because they'd heard the stories about how their parents had to toe the line according to Ford's ideas of morality. She said sometimes he would be smiling at them and then be scowling within seconds if he saw something he didn't like.

Men were fired for drinking or carousing and their company houses were subject to random, unannounced inspections. They were expected to go to church. There was a Ford newspaper that published kids stories and poems, and was full of little homilies about what made a good worker.

She said they made so much more than most other workers, they felt privileged to be working there, but at the same time they felt like they couldn't breathe without getting permission.

Republicans also do this when

Michael Maiello — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:16:55 +0000

In reply to The $5 a day wage, which was

Republicans also do this when they suggest that food stamp recipients should be drug tested, or even when they second guess the purchases of the poor: "Why does that supposedly poor person have air conditioning?" they ask.

My friend did all of the serious research on this. His book is brilliant. But, as I said, more on that to come.

What's given and what can be

Michael Maiello — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:48:44 +0000

In reply to A corporation that has

What's given and what can be taken (at, of course, varying degrees of risk). Much to think about, moat. Happy Labor Day.

A corporation that has

moat — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:46:03 +0000

In reply to Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford

A corporation that has consciously developed its own Department of Sociology may not be that different from other enterprises that reproduce cultures of selection just as extensive as the Ford vision but go unnamed and thus avoid the scrutiny that publicly announced plans tend to draw to themselves.

Now I could, as I have in the past, talk about arguments between Hayek and Galbraith over whether Capital markets only appear spontaneous or in fact are "free" places of exchange where new forms of life can appear. I could bring up Marx's observation that unions reinforce bourgeois institutions.

But it is Labor Day and I am tired from work so I will confine myself to my experience of working in a corporate world. There is a conformity that governs how much and what kind of responsibility will be given to one within a system. Those who want more than what is given have to become entrepreneurs to experience what can be taken. One can choose which side of the culture to conform to.

It is the same culture.

The $5 a day wage, which was

Aunt Sam — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:43:29 +0000

In reply to Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford

The $5 a day wage, which was more of a profit sharing plan, was extended only to those laborers who met Ford's standards of decency and temperanceT.

This process is definitely being enacted currently by the GOP with their intent being that unless one's religious faith is the same as what they tout as Christian values, then they will enact their condemnation and damnation via legislation ant ensuring that SCOTUS has only those who share their religious ideology.

destor, This is a great post. I am embarrassed to admit that I have been woefully ignorant of the truths about Ford. It's important that these facts are made known and hopefully, the parallels will be drawn between today's members of the corporate world and many of the 1% who continue to prosper from the hard work of the 99% with nary any interest in learning, much less truly identifying, with their lives and struggles.

Are the majority of the current placeholder's in corporate America better or worse than Ford in how they 'see' and feel about the workers/employees? Are they implementing, or attempting to implement, processes that are mired in the same philosophy as Ford's?

Terrific post, destor!

Doctor Cleveland — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:34:56 +0000

In reply to Labor Day and the Myth of Henry Ford

Terrific post, destor!