What impact did Henry Ford and his business practices have on life in the 1920s?

What impact did Henry Ford and his business


practices have on life in the 1920s? If you had been a factory worker during the


1920s, would you have taken a job with Ford?


Why or why not?


How did the widespread use of the automobile


affect family life, leisure activities, and working life


for some Americans?|||In 1914 Ford doubled the wages of his workforce (yes, doubled) and cut the work week to 5 days and 40 hours. That one act, aimed at employee retention, had far reaching benefits. Productivity soared, The cost of building the car went down, down, down, and the Company was richer than ever. By the time the 1920's rolled around his competitors had to follow suit. That workforce, flush with cash, bought cars, houses, and other durable goods, and had the leisure time to spend their relative bounty. It essentially created a blue color middle class with disposable income to actually buy the products they made.|||My Dad worked for Ford in Windsor Ontario in the late 1920's balancing crank shafts.





Ford paid better than some of the other car makers, BUT it was strongly anti union, and any talk of starting a union was grounds to be fired that day. The speed of the assembly line was all ways being increased to get more work out of the line workers. My Dad was on "piece work" which meant that he got paid for each crank shaft that he balanced, and he made good money,.as he was a fast worker, with few "rejects ".





He quit to start his own machine shop business in Windsor in 1930, just at the start of the depression, He went broke in 1933. Theh he went into the booze business, with the Chicago mob, and made tons of money, all tax free.





He died a millionaire in 1969.





Jim B.





Yoronto.