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You are correct, I was mistaken, it was a 1792 Act of Congress. Not Constitutional, but going back before 1792, precious metal is still the only true currency
by fuzzfactor 7y ago
You are correct, I was mistaken, it was a 1792 Act of Congress.
Not Constitutional, but going back before 1792, precious metal is still the only true currency the USA as young Ford knew it had been built upon since the beginning.
With gold and dollar still locked together having equal and excellent stability over longer terms, it was still possible to more meaningfully extrapolate relative wealth and value for labor in terms of gold & silver, and back much further in time than a single century, in some ways back millennia.
After the Fed, removal of gold coins & certificates, eventual confiscation of gold, then abandonment of the dollar's link altogether in the most recent century, not so much.
But the further you go back the less realistic units other than gold still turn out to be.
Anyway, with Ford putting out USD5 per day, the rare worker who could go 100 days without other obligations could then afford a nice Model T Ford family car for cash taking home their gross pay, which is what you needed since financing was not so common.
Seems like Ford probably is putting out close to USD300 per day now, the present worker just takes home a much smaller percentage and needs to settle for relatively less expensive cars than the _nice_ full-sized ones.