Henry Ford revolutionized not just the car world, but the world of manufacturing and
commerce thanks to his revolutionary assembly line process, which churned out cheap cars
and made modern transportation available to the general public. And those innovations
also did something else: They made Ford incredibly rich.
How rich? And exactly how did Ford manage to build a worldwide empire by selling cars
at a lower price than his competitors? The answers may surprise you.
Before Henry Ford became Henry Ford, he got his start working as an engineer for the Detroit-based
Edison Illuminating Company. It was there that he first put the "Motor" in "Motor City"
when he built what he called The Quadricycle, a "gasoline-powered horseless carriage" which
he kept in a shed.
In 1903, he founded Ford Motor Company and in 1908, he rolled out the first Model T,
or "Tin Lizzie." The paradoxical beauty of the Model T was that it was ugly and cheap.
According to The Daily Beast, investors wanted the company to crank out high-end luxury cars,
the kind of cars most regular people just couldn't afford. But Ford believed he would
make more money selling cheap cars to the masses.
Boy, was he right. His gamble paid off handsomely, and by the time Ford quit cranking out Model
T's, he had sold a whopping 15 million of them. In 1913, Ford changed the face of industry
with his famous assembly line, which later enabled his company to pump out one car every
24 seconds.
"you can pay more, but you can't buy better!"
As part of his streamlined assembly line process, Ford implemented some benefits beginning in
1914, including the creation of the 5-day, 40-hour work week. Previously, employees had
worked six days a week, for a 48-hour work week. Ford changed that, while also raising
wages to a then-unheard of $5 a week, apparently understanding that better rested and compensated
workers would be more efficient and productive workers.
Still, those arrangements came with strings attached. Workers had to submit to an inspection
of their home to determine if they "deserved" the $5 wage and five-day work week.
More importantly, Ford dictated the terms. Professor Robert Bruno of University of Illinois
School of Labor and Employment Relations explained,
"It was a unilaterally provided benefit at the discretion of the employer and could be
yanked away whenever the cost exceeded profits."
Ford might have been willing to share a little of the wealth, but only on his terms, and
only so long as he kept getting richer.
Cars and good times rolled for Ford, who turned his company into the largest auto manufacturer
on the planet. In the process, though, he also turned himself into one of the largest
jerks on the planet.
Most famously, and most heinously, Ford published vile anti-Semitic articles and books which
inspired widespread racism and hatred across the globe. Adolf Hitler was such a fan that
he kept a life sized portrait of Ford in his office, telling The Detroit News that Ford
was his, quote, "inspiration." In 1938, Ford was even awarded the Grand Cross of the German
Eagle by the Nazi government.
W.
T.
F.
Ford was also notoriously anti-union, to the point of ultra-violence. After all, he could
only sell cars cheaply if he also made them cheaply. So he resorted to illegal, draconian
methods to crush unionizers and intimidate workers into silence.
According to Smithsonian, things peaked in 1937 with an incident known as the Battle
of the Overpass. When the United Autoworkers Union organized a protest targeting Ford Motor
Company's River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford responded by hiring a private
army made up of, quote, "ex-convicts, ex-athletes, ex-cops and gang members." He then unleashed
his thugs on the union organizers, ambushing them in the middle of a photo op.
One union leader was thrown over the overpass, landing on the unforgiving pavement 30 feet
below, while according to The Detroit News, UAW leader Walter Reuther said
"Seven times, they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my
arms [...] and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown
down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down
the second flight. On the ground, they beat and kicked me some more."
"See your ford dealer soon!"
Between his innovations, business sense, and willingness to break both laws and bones to
keep control over his profit margin, Ford accumulated wealth at a nearly unparalleled
rate. He died in 1947, but according to Celebrity Net Worth, when adjusted for inflation his
fortune would equal roughly $200 billion today.
And that's a lot of Model T's.
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