5 ms·

It's simple, just apply modern capitalism. In this case the rule is: Ford was a genius for realizing his workers need to make enough to buy his product. Anyone

It's simple, just apply modern capitalism. In this case the rule is: Ford was a genius for realizing his workers need to make enough to buy his product. Anyone else who makes that realization is a dirty commie.

gruez 4y ago
>Ford was a genius for realizing his workers need to make enough to buy his product In what world does it make sense to pay your workers $20k (or whatever), so they can spend $20k on products that your company makes? Factoring in margins you need each dollar paid to your workers to generate $6.66 dollars worth of sales for you for it to break even.
- ipaddr 4y ago
  Cars are this big advertising moving billboard. Car companies employee thousands who work in cities built around these plants. Having employees driving around earning high paying wages spending it around town has a big influence on the rest of the town/region.
  - gruez 4y ago
    seems tenuous and hard to objectify. You could also use the same argument to say that raining $5 bills from your company offices has net positive value, eg. 1. dump a sack of $5 bills from your office 2. people associate your company with giving them free stuff, thereby giving you positive influence 3. ??? 4. profit
    - ipaddr 4y ago
      It can but each situation requires a multiplier. A $10,000 cash drop as a media story picked up nationally or regionally will be worth more. In Ford's case he doubled the daily pay to 5 dollars but this also provided a steady workforce so it had other benefits because a steady workforce means a trained and more productive workforce.
- kps 4y ago
  > In what world does it make sense to pay your workers $20k (or whatever), so they can spend $20k on products that your company makes? A world where you're raising the floor so that everyone else's workers can also spend on the products your company makes.
  - gruez 4y ago
    ...except that won't happen because supply/demand drives prices, not the inflated wages that you're paying. Your competitors will continue to pay their workers the usual wages, and laugh all the way to the bank with the extra money that they're not spending on wages, or undercut your prices.
    - kennywinker 4y ago
      Supply and demand also applies to the labour market. If you pay more, the best people want to work for you and you can hire the best people. Humans are not fungible, no matter how much businesses try to treat them that way.
      - gruez 4y ago
        >Supply and demand also applies to the labour market Right, but for wages (ie. prices) to go up, you need to decrease supply or increase demand. Increasing the prices you pay doesn't do that.
        kennywinker 4y ago
        Supply and demand can "solve" for the price for an HD TV. It can't solve the problem of "do I need an HD TV or a 4K TV?".

gruez 4y ago

>Ford was a genius for realizing his workers need to make enough to buy his product In what world does it make sense to pay your workers $20k (or whatever), so they can spend $20k on products that your company makes? Factoring in margins you need each dollar paid to your workers to generate $6.66 dollars worth of sales for you for it to break even.

ipaddr 4y ago
Cars are this big advertising moving billboard. Car companies employee thousands who work in cities built around these plants. Having employees driving around earning high paying wages spending it around town has a big influence on the rest of the town/region.
- gruez 4y ago
  seems tenuous and hard to objectify. You could also use the same argument to say that raining $5 bills from your company offices has net positive value, eg. 1. dump a sack of $5 bills from your office 2. people associate your company with giving them free stuff, thereby giving you positive influence 3. ??? 4. profit
  - ipaddr 4y ago
    It can but each situation requires a multiplier. A $10,000 cash drop as a media story picked up nationally or regionally will be worth more. In Ford's case he doubled the daily pay to 5 dollars but this also provided a steady workforce so it had other benefits because a steady workforce means a trained and more productive workforce.
kps 4y ago
> In what world does it make sense to pay your workers $20k (or whatever), so they can spend $20k on products that your company makes? A world where you're raising the floor so that everyone else's workers can also spend on the products your company makes.
- gruez 4y ago
  ...except that won't happen because supply/demand drives prices, not the inflated wages that you're paying. Your competitors will continue to pay their workers the usual wages, and laugh all the way to the bank with the extra money that they're not spending on wages, or undercut your prices.
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    Supply and demand also applies to the labour market. If you pay more, the best people want to work for you and you can hire the best people. Humans are not fungible, no matter how much businesses try to treat them that way.
    - gruez 4y ago
      >Supply and demand also applies to the labour market Right, but for wages (ie. prices) to go up, you need to decrease supply or increase demand. Increasing the prices you pay doesn't do that.
      - kennywinker 4y ago
        Supply and demand can "solve" for the price for an HD TV. It can't solve the problem of "do I need an HD TV or a 4K TV?".