On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > The founder of the auto manufacturer that bears his name generated > headlines around the world in January 1914 by doubling the average > autoworker’s pay to $5 a day. The move made Ford’s Model T more > affordable, created a more stable work force and helped stoke the > growth of the U.S. middle class, according to Bob Kreipke, the > historian for the company, based in Dearborn, Michigan. > > “This allowed people to increase their buying power and, at the same > time, they produced a better product,” Mr. Kreipke said. > > [but that was not Ford's purpose. Rather, he wanted to reduce > turnover. If his goal had been to raise workers' purchasing power, he > would have supported unionization.]
Irrespective of his motives, Ford did increase wages substantially and a similar increase would certainly be welcome for the sweatshops of China. And a renminbi appreciation would be good too for all of the other Asian countries that are beggared by China's mercantilism. But neither of those will happen because the rulers of China only care about national prestige and glory and that means things like hoarding dollars, building a strong military, hosting the Olympics, building enormous engineering structures etc. Lifting people out of poverty is unimportant except to the extent that the poverty diminishes China's national prestige in the world media. -raghu. -- "I don't care who you are, Fatso. Get the reindeer off my roof!" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
