#173: When workers cannot afford to spend

Not so long ago a middle-class income came from a single breadwinner. Then it took two breadwinners. Today even that is not enough. And this is before the latest recession.

Henry Ford so clearly saw the risks associated with low incomes that, to the horror of his fellow industrialists, he doubled the pay of his manual workers. What was he thinking? He simply wanted his workers to be able to buy the cars they were making!

How bizarre. And yet, if you hold down the salaries and wages of the middle and lower classes, while paying inflated executive bonuses, where will you find people with money to buy your products and services?

I find it amusing, and a little disturbing, when business leaders complain that people are not spending enough to boost the economy when the reason people are not spending is found in the short-sighted decisions of those same business leaders.

I miss Henry Ford.


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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