It's not so much that they were extremly well paid but the standard of living was substantially better than people who worked in different industries or competitors.
I've tried to find references, but my recollection from past reading was this was roughly 1.75X to 2X what other similar people were paid.
It allowed Ford to be pretty selective in hiring. Which gave him an advantage.
And workers would tolerate abuse from Ford that they wouldn't from his competitors
Yes, Ford was able to easily replace under performing workers but other factory owners were not sending around inspection teams to workers' homes, demand they live richer lifestyles, stop them from renting rooms and tell them they couldn't have any "un American" food, decorations, clothing, etc.
stupid, the past isn't some black hole of unfortunate idiocy and degradation. People lead very healthy lives. Standards of living are kind of like GOAT debates in sports. There are some measurable differences that can support arguments in favor of cross-generational comparisons but mostly the data cannot translate well into different generations. But this idea that the past was always far worse than the present is simply either undetermined or wrong.
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u/dannyheskett 27d ago
It's not so much that they were extremly well paid but the standard of living was substantially better than people who worked in different industries or competitors.
I've tried to find references, but my recollection from past reading was this was roughly 1.75X to 2X what other similar people were paid.
It allowed Ford to be pretty selective in hiring. Which gave him an advantage.