Henry Ford Paid His Workers $5 a Day So They Wouldn't Quit, Not So They Could Afford Model Ts

Over at Bloomberg View, Megan McArdle, in a post titled “ Employees Are Not Your Customers” happens to use one of the more enduring myths of automotive history to prove her point. That myth is that Henry Ford started paying his famous $5 a day wage in 1914 so his employees could afford to buy Model Ts. She was using the story as an example to make a specific point so Ms. McArdle doesn’t tell her readers the real reason why Henry started paying a more livable wage. That gives us an excuse to learn some history.

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  • Dwford Will we ever actually have autonomous vehicles? Right now we have limited consumer grade systems that require constant human attention, or we have commercial grade systems that still rely on remote operators and teams of chase vehicles. Aside from Tesla's FSD, all these systems work only in certain cities or highway routes. A common problem still remains: the system's ability to see and react correctly to obstacles. Until that is solved, count me out. Yes, I could also react incorrectly, but at least the is me taking my fate into my own hands, instead of me screaming in terror as the autonomous vehicles rams me into a parked semi
  • Sayahh I do not know how my car will respond to the trolley problem, but I will be held liable whatever it chooses to do or not do. When technology has reached Star Trek's Data's level of intelligence, I will trust it, so long as it has a moral/ethic/empathy chip/subroutine; I would not trust his brother Lore driving/controlling my car. Until then, I will drive it myself until I no longer can, at which time I will call a friend, a cab or a ride-share service.
  • Daniel J Cx-5 lol. It's why we have one. I love hybrids but the engine in the RAV4 is just loud and obnoxious when it fires up.
  • Oberkanone CX-5 diesel.
  • Oberkanone Autonomous cars are afraid of us.