Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
But you also had Henry Fords (loathsome bigoted views aside) who realized the best way to sell the most cars was to allow workers to earn enough to afford them.
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first, the UAW still had to get their heards' busted by Ford goons to get workers decent work conditions. but he at least least paid decent wages and benefited because more people could buy cars, although he also dropped the price so that normal people could afford a car.
and other than the depression it worked. the UAW kept demanding a bigger share, but that, in combination with Americans in steel and electronics and everything else still resulted in a middle class getting bigger. But at some point it become vulnerable, because it relied upon Americans buying American.
By the late 70s american cars were for shit, and Japan blew the whole charade up because they sold for much less. And at some point the PA steelworker and Cali electronics worker bought a Datsun. And then UAW workers realized Japan made decent TVs.
And pretty soon, for a US manufacturer to sell stuff they had to lower costs- they beat up their workers, and moved stuff to Mexico. Take a look at what happened to wages when GM spun off Delphi.
And all the FB memes about how Reagan's tax cuts killed the middle class miss that the above happened at the same time. Of course manufacturers choose very low price foreign labor; their consumers won't buy their products otherwise. Henry Ford's workers knew better than to force such a result.
