In the 1910s and 20s, Henry Ford built on the principles of scientific management through increased standardization and the development of the assembly line. At the Ford Motor Company in Detroit, the creation of the Model T automobile in 1908 was near perfection in the art of mass production, and would be enormously influential in American industry. Each worker’s role on the assembly line was simplified and standardized, resulting in rapid, continuous production. While other companies spent a week putting a car together, Ford was assembling them in a matter of hours. When accused of taking the skill out of work, Ford denied it and replied “[we] have not. We have put a higher skill into planning, management, and tool building, and the results of that skill are enjoyed by the man who is not skilled” (Ford and Crowther 39).
The increased productivity allowed Ford’s company to pay better wages and price vehicles low enough for unskilled workers to afford them. Ford understood that rising incomes meant greater purchasing power for the average American and, ultimately, more sales for his company (Brinkley 123). What has come to be called “Fordism” is a socio-economic system which guarantees endless production, consumption, and economic growth. It produces massive amounts of low-cost, standardized goods created in factories by unskilled assembly-line workers, and pays those workers a decent wage, allowing them to later purchase those very goods for themselves. It is an extremely pragmatic and efficient system that allows the working class to live in relative comfort. But this comfort comes with a price: a loss of skilled labor in the endlessly repetitive work, and a lack of any intellectual development or real self-determination.
Ford seemed to value as the perfect worker one who was just smart enough to perform his work, but not so smart as to fully understand or question it. He viewed his customers in a similar way, famously stating that they “could have any color they wanted, as long as it was black” (Ford and Crowther 71). Perhaps he was being facetious, but it is indicative of the kind of power those in control of mass production have in a consumer culture. In the later 1920s and 1930s, when Ford’s company began to face greater competition and his old model of cutting prices was less and less successful, the culture in his plants changed. Never a friend to unions or job security, Ford’s principles began to be enforced “not by high pay, but by rigid and ruthless discipline” (Clarke 5). His factories were increasingly filled with spies and informers and any employee complaining, suggesting unions or strikes, or simply acting suspiciously was quickly fired. Ford’s world began to look more and more dystopian.
Ford’s Model T, along with his system of manufacturing and marketing, has had a lasting impact on the American economy and society. Mass production and consumption was solidified as the basis of America’s economic system. Ford helped break down resistance to the automobile (Brinkley 124), and the Model T’s adoption by all sectors of the American public led to the creation of the transportation infrastructure we have today: paved roads, highways, gas stations, and the decline of passenger trains. The widespread use of the automobile changed social dynamics, allowing friends and family to visit and travel with much greater freedom. It helped those isolated in rural areas to become more active socially and escape from the farm. Due to the vehicle’s low cost and ease of use, and the independence and status it granted, the Model T allowed many Americans to become more upwardly mobile and helped to create the middle class. The Model T helped make the automobile and suburban home an essential part of the American dream. Due to the enormous social and economic impact Henry Ford and his ideas had in the early decades, he is undoubtedly one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century.
- Brinkley, Douglas. “Prime Mover.” Flyover History: Remembering Our Ignored Past. Eds. Peter J. Myers, Robert R. Hines, and Rex Field. Mason, OH: Thomson Custom Solutions, 2008. 123-128. Print.
- Clarke, Simon. “New Utopias for Old: Fordist Dreams and Post-Fordist Fantasies.” Capital & Class 14.3 (1990): 131-155.
- Ford, Henry, and Samuel Crowther. My Life and Work. New York: Doubleday, 1922.
