Henry Ford, the greatest benefactor in human history
Published July 30, 2003
Henry Ford was born 140 years ago today, on July 30, 1863. We should all take a moment today to thank Rand for this great man.
Henry Ford was the greatest benefactor in all of human history. According to dictionary.com, a benefactor is "One who confers a benefit or benefits." Henry Ford has arguably conferred more benefits to mankind than any one other person in history.
Mother Theresa was OK, but Henry Ford did 10,000 times more to actually help poor people. Sure Mother Theresa helped thousands of poor sick people. Tens of millions of folks have gone from poor struggling dirt farmers to being middle class homeowners who could afford to send their children to college, though, because of Henry Ford.
Moreover many times those millions have gained mobility and benefits from being able to DRIVE. Being able to get around has exponentially increased individual options. Why, I can get a job in the city 20 miles away, and easily drive there every day. Indeed, anyone who could come up with $200 could buy themselves a new Model T and go anywhere- no walking, no horses to feed or rest.
Don't get me wrong- Henry Ford was no saint. He apparently didn't care much for the Hebrew people. Privately, he apparently didn't much like black folks either. He hated unions.
These private feelings are irrelevant, however. Note the famous words of Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." This is the essential elemental beauty of capitalism.
Henry Ford may not have give a good goddam about a black man. However, he did black Americans far more good than even the sainted Martin Luther King. Now, MLK was doubtless a nicer guy than Ford. He CARED much more about a black man than Ford, no doubt. MLK helped get people the right to vote and go to the bathroom. These are good things.
Ford, on the other hand, created millions of jobs for black folk who could then afford to buy whole houses with multiple bathrooms of their own. Millions of black folk went from poor indebted sharecroppers to being middle class homeowners. Dad's wages working for Ford have sent more kids to college than the United Negro College Fund.
Black folk: Think for a minute, then tell me whose efforts actually benefit YOU the most day to day, Jesse Jackson or Henry Ford?
MLK and Mother Theresa doubtless CARED far more about poor oppressed folk than Henry Ford. However, their Deep Concern won't put food on your table. A good job at Ford, however, does just that and much more. Plus giving even the customers the mobility to get much better choices of jobs, and health care, etc.
No more than he liked unions or lost sleeping worrying about the poor people, he offered a $5 per day minimum wage- a big deal- on grounds that it increased productivity. He battled unions, but without Ford creating the industry there would have been no union jobs over whose wages anyone could fight.
On a lighter note, for a little consideration of the downside of this benificence, dig up a copy of Jerry Reed's classic hit "Lord, Mr Ford."
- Henry Ford, the greatest benefactor in human history
- Published: July 30, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Books: Biography, Books: History, Books: Philosophy
- Writer: Al Barger
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I cannot have a good morning anymore without the highly regarded, resident expert analysis of Al on BlogCritics. Oh I'm sorry, not only his criticism but also the constant insight on wonderful comparisons of incomparable subjects. Who would have thought political rap and hip hop could be compared? Who would have thought Henry Ford comparable to MLK or Mother T?
Wow, with Al's keen insight once again, maybe we can end racism, injustice, and unemployment forever. Al, did you always know you had such accurate insight?
And Al can even show us he has the balls to look up benefactor in the dictionary, and then purposely misspell a derivative of that word at the end of the article!
Amazingly thought out Al; So well thought out, in fact, *no one* can accuse you of writing flame-bait articles!
You say "flame bait" I say "intellectually challenging."
And what kind of constricted worldview do you have that you will consider "political rap" and "hip hop" apples and oranges? That's about as dumb as the crackers who like both types of music- country AND western.
And why couldn't you compare and contrast the work of Henry Ford and Mother Theresa?
You say "intellectually challenging", I say "intellectually challenged". How P.C. of you, how in response, P.C. of me. But since your attempt of being politically correct is meaningless when read in context with your article, I'm going to settle on calling it flame-bait.
Your ever expanding world view must apparently be that all rap is the same, and all country music is too. I guess I'll just step back and not argue with you on that one. If you don't know differences exist within each genre that are incomparable, I don't think I will convince you with a single response. It would take years of shock therapy.
But it's also of my opinion you should continue to write about things you really have no clue about...This is the Internet after all, and I been having trouble finding articles such as this, and some days you just need to argue with someone. This is your purpose in life I think: To challenge the intellectual with your challenged intellect.
By the way, being that you had to give two examples of 'apples' to compare to your 'orange', I think you answered your own question above.
But if you can't wrap your noodle around that concept perhaps I should just argue that Henry Ford a man who was anti-black & anti-Semitic is more ably comparable in my constricted world view to YOU, and not MLK or Mother T.
And here I am arguing with a fool again. Damn. Sorry mom.
I was just getting worried we might end up have a new national St. Ford day because of Al.
"Flame bait" means that you are accusing me of saying something I know to be wrong simply to get a reaction. This does not describe this article because 1)I believe my statements to be true, and 2)They are demonstrably true.
Yes, Ford apparently had a crappy attitude toward various ethnic minorities- as I carefully emphasized, but SO WHAT? The whole point here is that the subjective internal feelings of Ford or MLK are far less important than what they actually accomplished.
IN POINT OF FACT, ON THE GROUND HENRY FORD DID MORE TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF BLACK AMERICANS THAN MLK. MLK helped quite a bit. I don't mean to disparage his achievement, but to elevate the vastly underappreciated contributions of Ford and other businessmen.
I carefully did NOT set Ford up as a "saint." However, a holiday officially recognizing his contributions wouldn't be bad. We've got too many damned holidays now, but I'd vote for trading out Labor Day for an "Industrialist Day" or "Entrepreneur Day" honoring the businessmen who contributed so much to building the country.
And you are most certainly welcome to honk off with your cheap, libelous accusations of racism being directed toward ME. The anti-Semitic charge is particularly ludicrous, as I consider the children of Abraham to be the most prestigious blood line in the world.
And don't accuse me (of all people) of being PC. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.
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I wouldn't go so far as saying he was the greatest benefactor in human history, but I sure as heck would like to thank him for my lovely Mustang.