Uhm, Henry Ford was known for violently suppressing unions in his factories. He considered unions to be closely tied to "Jewish Zionist" ambitions. He was also a heavy monetary supporter of Adolf Hitler. In fact, he refused to give back awards he received from the Third Reicht, and was in fact buried with them. Oh, and he was illiterate.
So word of advice... don't take advice from Henry Ford.
I think highly dyslexic is a better description than illiterate for Henry Ford, he was a genius.
Pioneered material science, machining and forming metal cost effectively, made the assembly line, 161 patents, created enormous opportunity for hard working and smart people, brought cars to the masses.
His political feelings should be put in context, he had a great relationship with Germany before the war, FDR was massively increasing the size of gov't and creating entitlements with the New Deal (something few business pioneers would be for) and during the war, there was talk of FDR taking over the company he built to produce war goods for a foreign war he opposed intervening in.
I don't think his right-wing extremism can be explained away as a reaction to FDR or the impending war, since it goes back quite a bit earlier. He published The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem in 1920! It was actually the inspiration for parts of Mein Kampf (1923), which speaks approvingly of Ford and lifts some sections more or less directly from him. And, he met with and corresponded with Nazi representatives several times in the early-to-mid 1920s, a point at which the Nazis were a fringe extremist party not anywhere near government, so couldn't plausibly be said to be part of normal business ties with Germany. I think he just kind of hated Jews for some reason.
It's always worse to look back and compare the actions of someone 100 years ago to what we would consider normal today. I'm not forgiving the guy, but you'd have to look around at some of his contemporaries and see if this type of behaviour was normal. Going further back, a lot of well-regarded American had slaves, for example.
A lot of people were friendly with the Nazis in the early-mid 1930's. They did turn Germany around and get it going in the early stages.
Yes, that's fucked up and sad. Maybe all his success went to his head. My point was that not everything he did good should be cast in the bad light, for instance, a person wanting to run a manufacturing business could gain a lot from taking his advise. I'm not an apologist, just think there is value in reading about extraordinary people.
Wow, that's a horrifically one sided and incorrect view. Only held btw in the US, and by people who are not familiar with the actual history. Ford, like GM and IBM invests considerable effort in hiding their roles in that war.
Ford however, was one of the few who "took sides". They didn't just support the Nazis for economic reasons ( which is pretty damned horrific ), they actually hindered allied production purposefully.
Also, he got lucky. He built one of the first car companies and he did a good job at first. End result is he ended up being one of the big 3. Every industry has em. He was in the right place at the right time. From then on he had a large enough enterprise that it could run itself, all he had to do was sit back and not get too involved. Which he couldn't do. He nearly bankrupted the company and embarked on a bunch of inglorious economic escapades resulting in him being kicked out of the Ford.
I mean... jesus, who the hell taught you people history? How can you possibly look up to this guy FOR ANYTHING. He was a bull headed arrogant deceitful bastard who tried very hard to quite literally destroy his own country and his people.
>> "How can you possibly look up to this guy FOR ANYTHING."
I'm not sure what you're trying to argue here.
EVERY Human life can teach us things. Good and bad. If you don't want to learn, then fine, ignore him and anyone else you disagree with their politics etc
You seem to be arguing "he was evil vs he was good" which is pretty irrelevant if he had some good ideas, which IMHO he did.
I think you'll find many many historical/famous people have seriously flawed personalities, did terrible things as well as good etc. We are only human after all...
Down at the Club, further sage advice from Mr Ford: "When "Mr. Lee Jackson" is proposed for the club there would seem to be no reason, as far as reading goes, why anything unusual about Mr. Jackson should be surmised, until you know that Mr. Jackson is really Mr. Jacobs."
Genghis Khan wiped out more ethnic groups than Hitler even had a passing opinion about, but his tactics are still taught at military academies and war colleges and his basic doctrine--maneuver warfare--has for centuries been the most effective.
Moral judgment and proficiency are two different things. Ford was a brilliant industrialist who happened to be an anti-Semite. It doesn't mean we can't learn from his example, though we might think twice before we build massive statues of him.
Sure, but Fordlandia, his inability to read, and his belief in such absurdity as "The protocols of the elders of zion" speak volumes as to the man's mental state. Which at best is mildly insane.
Many people disagree with the idea of Unions. That doesn't mean you should ignore everything they say just because you don't like one of their viewpoints.
People aren't "good" or "evil". People are complex. If you ignore someone just because you dislike some of their ideas, you'll ignore pretty much everyone.
Also it's incredibly unfair to judge someone without taking into account the political and social climate while they were alive.
So word of advice... don't take advice from Henry Ford.