Posted on 02/02/2014 12:01:41 PM PST by Winged Hussar
I was initially delighted to learn that President Obama cited Henry Ford in a speech, because Ford's industrial methods were directly responsible for making the United States the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. If Obama is, in fact, channeling Ford, there is hope for the remainder of his term. If, on the other hand, he is not, I am the last person on earth to whom he should try to make this argument.
...The need for a square deal for everybody in a supply chain, including employees, customers, and suppliers as well as investors, is indeed one of the three elements of Henry Ford's universal code for success in any enterprise. The problem is that a stool cannot stand on one of its three legs, and the president overlooked the other two. These three impartial, nonpartisan, and inarguable laws of economics, science, and human behavior are as follows.
(1) Economic law says we cannot get something for nothing. Speculation in mortgage-backed securities, dot-com stocks, and carbon credits is a zero-sum game that produces no value for society. We cannot have material wealth that we do not produce, and the SEIU cannot get $15 an hour for fast food workers simply by demanding it.
(2) Scientific law says, however, that we need not live with a zero-sum situation. We cannot get something from nothing, but we can usually get far more from what we have. The Toyota production system is the most widely recognized way to do this, but it was actually developed at the Ford Motor Company.
(3) Behavioral law requires a square deal for all business stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, employees, and investors.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
MLK: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
BHO: “Judge me not by the content of my character but by the color of my skin.”
“Ford’s industrial methods”
There’s a great pic of Ford at a meat processing plant, intently watching a line of men “disassemble” hogs. It’s said that that is where he got the idea for his assembly lines. I don’t know if that’s true, but it does make some sense!
Henry Ford didn’t make the Model T. Somebody else did.
A lot of Deming’s principles, including breaking down organizational barriers, originated with Henry Ford. The Ford Motor Company later had to re-learn this material from Japan.
Henry Ford was an anti-Semite. Obama is channeling that part of Ford.
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