Item — HN Reader

This misses the point.

"The point is that the amount of money that your workers are making, does not have any significant effect on the demand side of who buys your product."

This is a class issue. I imagine Henry knew that. Workers must be paid well. All workers. Or the ruling class (Henry's class) will wither and die.

This is a point the current ruling class has forgotten

1 comments

No. He had to pay more than other employers to retain employees. Once all workers are paid well, he has to pay better than them. It has nothing to do with any desire to protect his own class.

The line about wanting his employees to buy cars is obvious propaganda, but hard to argue with lacking the truth it was meant to distract us from. The truth was not obvious, but required more facts, which the author supplied. So, now we are equipped to put Ford's line to bed: he had no particular desire for his workers to live well, but did need them to stay on the line.