Henry Ford: Should You Be Poor?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

I mean by poverty the lack of food, shelter and clothing for both the individual and the family. There will always be a difference in lifestyle. Poverty can only be eliminated by excess. We have now penetrated deep enough into the science of production to foresee the day when production, like distribution, will be carried out in such precise ways that each will be rewarded according to his ability and diligence.

The root cause of poverty, in my opinion, lies primarily in the lack of balance between production and distribution in industry, as in agriculture, in the lack of balance between energy sources and its exploitation. The costs of this inconsistency are enormous. All these losses must be destroyed by a reasonable, service-oriented leadership. As long as the leader puts money above service, the loss will continue. Losses can only be eliminated by far-sighted, not short-sighted minds. Shortsighted people think about money first and don't see losses at all. They regard true ministry as altruistic, not the most profitable business in the world. They are unable to move away from less important subjects so as to see more important and above all the most important - namely, that purely opportunistic production, considered even from a purely monetary point of view, is the most unprofitable.

Service can be based on an altruistic foundation, but it is usually cheap in such cases. Sentimentality suppresses practicality.

Industrial enterprises, of course, would be able to re-dissipate some proportional part of the wealth they have created, but the overhead is usually so great that it is not enough for all participants in the enterprise, despite the fact that the product is sold at an excessively high price; as a result, the industry itself limits its distribution.

Here are some examples of waste: The Mississippi Valley does not produce coal. In the midst of it streaming innumerable potential horsepower - the Mississippi. If the population living on its shores wants to get energy or heat, then they buy coal, which is produced a thousand miles away and, therefore, must be paid much higher than its heating or motive value. If the population cannot afford to buy this expensive coal, they go to cut trees and thereby deprive themselves of one of the most effective means of maintaining the power of water. Until very recently, it had never occurred to him to take advantage of the nearby and almost maintenance-free source of energy, which would be enough to provide warmth, light and motive power for the huge population fed by this valley.

The cure for poverty lies not in petty frugality, but in better distribution of the objects of production. The concepts of "frugality" and "economy" are exaggerated. The word frugality is an expression of illness. The fact of unproductive spending is revealed in all its tragic magnitude mostly by accident - and now there is a violent reaction against unproductive waste - the person grasps on the idea of frugality. Unfortunately, he only replaces the lesser evil with the greater, instead of going back all the way from delusion to truth.

Thrift is a favorite rule of all half-dead people. Surely frugality is better than wastefulness, but it is also undeniable that it is worse than useful cost. People who do not demand anything from their savings preach them as a virtue. But is there a more pathetic sight than an unhappy, anxious man who, in the best and most beautiful days of his life, clings to a couple of pieces of hard metal? What can be wonderful in the fact that a person denies himself all the pleasures? We all know these so-called "thrifty people" who seem to feel sorry for even the air, who will skimp on an extra kind word, on extra praise or approval. They huddled up both spiritually and physically. Thrift in this sense is a waste of life's juices and feelings. For there are two kinds of extravagance: the extravagance of the frivolous, who, while wasting their lives, throw their life force out the window, and the extravagance of the idlers, who allow their energy to be wasted. The strict hoarder is in danger of being equated with idlers and parasites. Waste is usually a reaction against the oppression of prudent spending, while frugality is often a reaction against extravagance.

Everything is given to us for need. There is no evil that arises otherwise than from abuse. The biggest sin that we can commit against ordinary things is their abuse, of course, in a deeper sense of the word. We love the expression “wastefulness,” but wastefulness is only a phase of abuse. All wastefulness is abuse, all abuse is wastefulness.

The hoarding habit can easily become excessive. It is fair and even desirable that everyone should have a reserve fund; not to have it, if at all possible, is a genuine wastefulness. However, this can be taken too far. We teach children to save money. As a remedy for reckless and selfish throwing of money, it comes with a price. But it has no positive price; it does not lead the child along the correct, healthy path of useful and healthy manifestation and application of his “I”. It is better to teach a child to use and spend money than to save. Most people who carefully save a couple of dollars would do better by spending it first on themselves and then on some kind of work. In the end, they would have had more savings than before. Young people should predominantly invest in their own businesses in order to add value to their value. When they subsequently reach the pinnacle of useful creativity, there will always be time to set aside, on certain solid grounds, most of the proceeds. In reality, when they prevent oneself from being productive, nothing is accumulated. By this they limit only their immutable property and lower the price of their natural capital. The principle of correct spending is the only fraudulent principle. Spending is positive, active, life-giving. The waste is alive. Spending multiplies the sum of all that is good.

Personal need cannot be eliminated without general restructuring. Raising wages, raising profits, any increase in order to get more money, are just separate attempts of certain classes to break out of the fire themselves, not paying attention to the fate of their neighbors.

The ridiculous opinion prevails that you can somehow resist a thunderstorm if you can get yourself enough money. The workers think they can fight it if they get higher wages. The capitalists believe they can fight it if they make more profits. Belief in the omnipotence of money is directly touching. In normal times, money is a very useful item, but money itself has less value than people who are involved in production with its help - and even in this case, it can be used for evil.

It is impossible to eradicate the opinion that there is a natural antagonism between industry and agriculture. This is absolutely not the case. Likewise, it is absurd to think that people should return to the land because the cities are overpopulated. If people acted accordingly, agriculture would quickly cease to be a profitable occupation. Of course, it is just as unwise to move in droves to industrial centers. If the village is empty, then what benefit will industry have then? There must and can be some kind of bond between agriculture and industry. The industrialist can give the farmer what he needs in order to be a good farmer, and the farmer, like all other producers of raw materials, provides the industrialist with everything that only makes him workable. The transport that connects them must be in the form of an able-bodied organization, only then will it be possible to create a stable and healthy system of field service. If we, then, settle in smaller communities, where life is not so inflated and the products of fields and gardens are not appreciated by countless intermediaries, then poverty and discontent will be much less.

This raises the question of seasonal work. The construction craft, for example, is seasonally dependent. What a waste of power to allow construction workers to hibernate until spring and summer come! It is equally wasteful when trained construction workers who entered a factory in the winter to avoid losing their earnings during the off-season are forced to remain in their original factory work for fear of not finding one for the next winter. How much extravagance, generally speaking, is in our present immobile system! If a farmer could free himself from the factory for sowing, planting and harvesting (which, after all, only take part of the year), and a construction worker after winter work could free himself for his useful trade, how much better would we be from this and how much more unhindered the world would turn!

What if we all went to the countryside in spring and summer to lead a healthy life of a farmer for 3 … 4 months! We wouldn't have to talk about "stagnation."

The village also has its own off-season, the season when the farmer should go to the factory in order to help in the production of the necessary things in his household.

And the factory has its own off-season, and then the worker would have to go to the village and help cultivate the grain. Thus, it would be possible for everyone to avoid the time of stagnation, to equalize artificial and natural life.

One of the greatest benefits we have achieved in doing so would be a harmonious worldview. The merger of various crafts is not only materially beneficial, but at the same time leads us to broader horizons and more correct judgments about our neighbors. If our work was more varied, if we also studied other aspects of life, if we understood how much we need each other, we would be more tolerant. For everyone, temporary work in the open air means a win

All this is by no means unattainable. What is true and desired is never unattainable. It only requires a little teamwork, a little less greed and vanity, and a little more respect for life.

The rich want to travel for 3 … 4 months and spend time idly in some elegant summer or winter resort. Most of the American people would not like to waste their time this way, even if they had the opportunity to do so. But she would immediately agree to a part-time job providing seasonal outdoor work.

There is little doubt that much of the anxiety and discontent everywhere stems from abnormal lifestyles. People who do the same thing year after year, are deprived of sunlight and are excluded from the wide free life, there is almost no reproach that they see life in a distorted form. This applies as much to capitalists as it applies to workers.

What prevents us from leading a normal and healthy life? Is it incompatible with industry for people who are especially capable to consistently engage in various crafts and trades? To this one might argue that production would suffer if crowds of industrial workers were to leave the factory towns every summer in the summer. We should still treat the case from a social point of view. We must not forget what kind of heightened energy would animate these crowds after 3 … 4 months of work in the fresh air. Nor can we ignore the impact that a general return to the village will have on the cost of existence.

We ourselves, as shown in the previous chapter, have partially accomplished this fusion of agricultural and factory work with satisfactory results. We have a small fan factory in Northville near Detroit. The factory is small, true, but it produces a large number of fans. The management, as well as the organization of production, are relatively simple, since production is limited to a homogeneous product. We do not need trained workers, since all "skill" has been replaced by machines. The surrounding villagers work one part of the year in the factory and the other on the farms, because a mechanically operated farm requires little care. The plant is supplied with energy by water.

A fairly large factory is currently under construction in Flat Rock, about 15 English miles from Detroit. We have blocked the river. The dam serves as both a bridge for the Detroit-Toledo-Ironton Railroad, which needed a new bridge, and a public roadway. We intend to manufacture our glass here. The dam gives us enough water so that we can deliver the bulk of our raw materials by water. It also supplies us with current through hydroelectric equipment. Since the enterprise, in addition, is located in the center of an agricultural district, it excludes the possibility of overpopulation, as well as everything else arising from this. The workers, along with the factory activity, will cultivate their gardens or fields located 15 … 20 English miles in the vicinity, because now the worker is, of course, able to go to the factory in a car. There we created a fusion of agriculture and industry.

The opinion that an industrial state should concentrate its industry is, in my opinion, unfounded. This is only necessary at an intermediate stage of development. The more we progress in industry and learn how to make products, parts of which can be replaced, the more the conditions of production will improve. And the best working conditions are also the best from an industrial point of view. A giant factory cannot be established on a small river. But on a small river you can build a small factory, and a collection of small factories, each of which produces only one part, will make the whole production cheaper than if it were concentrated entirely in one huge enterprise. However, there are some exceptions, such as foundries. In cases like River Rouge, we try to connect the metal deposit with the foundry, just as we use all the other productive forces without a trace. Such combinations, however, are rather the exception than the rule. They are unable to interfere with the process of dilution of the centralized industry.

The industry will be decentralized. Not a single city, if it had failed, would have been rebuilt exactly according to the same plan. This alone already determines our judgment in relation to our cities. The big city has fulfilled its specific task. Of course, the village would not be so cozy if there were no big cities. Gathering together, we have learned many things that could never have been learned in the countryside. Sewerage, lighting technology, social organization - were realized only thanks to the experiences of big cities. But all the social shortcomings from which we now suffer are also rooted in the big cities. Small towns, for example, have not yet lost touch with the seasons; they know neither excessive need nor excessive wealth. The city of a million is something formidable, unbridled. And only thirty miles from its hustle and bustle are happy and contented villages. The big city is an unfortunate helpless monster. Everything that it consumes must be delivered to it. When the message is broken, the vital nerve is also torn. The city relies on sheds and barns. But the barn and the barn cannot produce. The city can not only feed, but also clothe, warm and shelter

Finally, the total costs in private, as well as in public life, have increased so much that they can hardly be sustained. Expense imposes such a high tax on life that nothing is left in surplus. The politicians borrowed money so easily that they strained the credit of the cities to the highest degree. Over the past ten years, the administrative costs of each of our cities have increased enormously. Much of this expense consists of interest on loans that went either on unproductive stones, bricks, and lime, or on utility gadgets necessary for city life but expensively built, such as plumbing and sewerage systems.

The costs of operating these devices, maintaining order and communication in overcrowded counties, are much greater than the benefits associated with such large settlements. The modern city is wasteful; today he is bankrupt, and tomorrow he will cease to exist.

The preparation for the construction of a large number of cheaper and more easily accessible production facilities, which may not be created all at once, but as needed, will more than anything else contribute to the widespread affirmation of life on a prudent basis, and the expulsion from the world of wastefulness that generates poverty. … There are many ways to generate energy. For one area, the cheapest equipment would be lying in close proximity to a coal mine, powered by steam - an electric motor; for the other, an electric water engine. But in every locality there must be a central motor in order to supply everyone with cheap electricity. This should be as obvious as a rail link or a water pipe. And all these grandiose sources could serve society without any difficulty, if the high costs associated with the extraction of capital were not in the way. I think nm should undergo a detailed revision of our views on capital!

Capital that flows of itself from the enterprise, used to help the worker move forward and raise his welfare, capital that multiplies the possibilities of work and at the same time increases the costs of public service, even in the hands of one person, is not a danger to society. After all, it is an exclusively daily reserve working fund, entrusted by society to a given person and going to the benefit of society. The one to whose authority he is subordinate cannot at all consider him as something personal. No one has the right to consider such a surplus as personal property, because he was not the only one who created it. Surplus is a common product of the entire organization. True, the idea of one liberated the general energy and directed it towards one goal, but each worker was a participant in the work. You should never consider the enterprise, reckoning only with the present time and persons involved in it. The enterprise must be able to develop. Higher rates should always be paid. Each participant should be given decent content, no matter what role he plays.

Capital that does not constantly create new and better work is more useless than sand. A capital that does not continually improve the daily living conditions of workers and does not establish fair wages for work is not fulfilling its important task. The main goal of capital is not to raise as much money as possible, but to ensure that money leads to a better life

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