Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In 1914, a business executive named Henry Ford did a startling thing: He announced that he was going to more than double the wages he was paying his employees, from $2.34 to $5 a day -- the equivalent of $120 a day in today's money.
The country was as shocked by this then as it would be today.
A powerful company voluntarily sharing some of its profits with its rank-and-file workers and paying them more than it absolutely had to? Had Henry Ford gone mad? Didn't he understand that the only goal of a business was to make money?
Didn't he realize that, as a successful business executive, he was entitled to make as much money as he could possibly make--the financial health of his employees being nobody's business but their own? Didn't he understand that smart executives pay their employees no more than "market rates" because the executive's job is to "create shareholder value," everyone in our economy gets what they deserve, and the financial well-being of employees is not something that business owners or bosses or shareholders should be concerned with?
The story you hear frequently about why Henry Ford made this decision was that he wanted to allow his workers to be able to afford to buy his cars. The wage increase certainly made the cars (and many other products) more affordable for Ford employees, but the historical consensus is that Ford actually made this decision for a different reason: To reduce employee turnover--and, in so doing, reduce recruiting and replacement cost.
Regardless, it worked.
Thousands of people immediately lined up to get jobs at Ford (F). Employee turnover plummeted, and recruiting and training costs dropped. The new wages allowed Ford employees to live middle-class lives, instead of being poor. And it presumably made Ford, Ford's senior executives, and Ford's shareholders even more proud of what they had created.
In short, instead of viewing "shareholders" and "customers" as the only two corporate constituencies that matter, Ford introduced the idea that great companies should also serve a third constituency: Employees.
This is Capitalism, not the Oligarchy and Voodoo Trickle Down Economics that the right wing advocates for defends and desires to repeat.
So the automobile companies need to double what they pay their workers?
I think the point that the article is making and what was so successful for Ford is evident in the last line of the article...
In short, instead of viewing "shareholders" and "customers" as the only two corporate constituencies that matter, Ford introduced the idea that great companies should also serve a third constituency: Employees.
The article notes that he did this to stop turnover. Business does not have a turn over problem today. It's amazing how people can read an article and get something out of it that isn't even there or post an article and make unrelated rants.
I think the point that the article is making and what was so successful for Ford is evident in the last line of the article...
In short, instead of viewing "shareholders" and "customers" as the only two corporate constituencies that matter, Ford introduced the idea that great companies should also serve a third constituency: Employees.
Fair enough, but these events took place nearly 100 years ago. Many companies do serve this third constituency for example by offering stock options and benefits.
This is Capitalism, not the Oligarchy and Voodoo Trickle Down Economics that the right wing advocates for defends and desires to repeat.
Basically he hired people to work to buy those cars. Since 1965 the plan has been to shift wealth to none workers from workers.If you study Ford later year adventures he was fully into foreign business advantures whe it was near impossible to achieve.
This is Capitalism, not the Oligarchy and Voodoo Trickle Down Economics that the right wing advocates for defends and desires to repeat.
What do you pay your employees?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
