Henry Ford The Gospel Of Wealth Analysis

The Gilded Age, a forty-eight year period at the end of the nineteenth century, was described as a time that has a rotten core covered with gold paint by Mark Twain. During that era, after the Civil War, the nation had been filled with unscrupulous businessmen and massive corruptions. Similar to the situation in the Gilded Age, the wealth gap in today is enormous and hence causing people to call it the second Gilded Age. Although society in the U.S. is different nowadays, the economic and political situation from these two time periods share many similarities. Gilded Age is an era where economy grew astonishingly.

In the early 20th century, American philanthropy matured with the development of a very large and highly visible private foundations created by Rockefeller, and Carnegie. Henry fords Model T was not only successful because it provided cheap transportation on a massive scale, but also because the car signified innovation for the rising middle class and became a powerful symbol of America 's age of

Henry Ford provided many jobs for people that were out of work. His jobs payed $5 a day, so many people were attracted to this job. If you worked for the Ford company you got a little badge and people respected you for it. Henry Ford’s company provided

He did this by making the automobile affordable. He knew if he did this everyone could have a automobile and he could make a lot of money which is called mass production. Ford realized that automobiles were expensive so he knew if he lowered the price he could give people a automobile and make lots of money. Since he opened a bunch of factories he needed workers which at the time was during the Great Depression when people were jobless and he paid above minimum wage which he knew would attract workers (, .

Name of Industrialist: Henry Ford How did he acquire his wealth? He acquire his wealth by being a self-made man, that revolutionize the car industry in the 90’s.   How he (or his related industries) treated workers? Ford manage to lowered the cost of manufacturing, while providing a wage correspondent to more than double of the previous average.

Today transportation has never been easier with the invention of the car or automobile. These 3000-4000 pounds of metal is the main methods of transportation for America. Whether it be by taxi, bus, or even by your own car you bought yourself going to your destination. However, none of this would be possible if it was not for Henry Ford in a free enterprise system. The free enterprise system allowed Henry Ford to create a product that allowed all of the lower class and upper class to afford an automobile.

However, automobiles like the Chevrolet, the Rambler and the Hudson Hornet were huge successes when it came to consumerism in the economy. Manufacturers in the automobile industry, would make small changes to every year’s model. These changes would persuade consumers to buy the new model and that they needed to update their cars every couple of years and ultimately expanded purchasing growth in the 50’s society.

Automobiles were affordable and were designed carefully. The majority of these cars were produced by the Ford Motor Company, led by Henry Ford, who designed a different model each year to satisfy the insatiable crowd. Many of the automotive innovations that we think of as being modern—like electric powered cars, four wheel drive, front wheel drive, hybrid fuel and electric cars—were introduced during the 1920s. The automobiles had various different colors in order to get the attention of people, especially woman, and through time, they evolved to become more comfortable to drive for men (Scott ,1). The automobiles were beneficial to the U.S because they expanded the area of habitat.

Imagine you get to work and you clock into to your job which pays twice the pay as all of the jobs your friends and Famliy have but when you get there you sit in a tiny station where all day long you do the same thing over and over agian. This job would be quite a degrading boring horrible job would it not? Now that you know that your job is horrible but you get twice the pay you need to know that you work for Ford Motor company and you will be twisting the wrench on all five screws on the front of the car about 50 times a day for the rest of your life. At least you weren 't doing it for less than 5 $ per day like everyone else.

Henry Ford was an entrepreneur who founded the Ford Motor Company in June of 1903 and grew it into a very successful business. He achieved this through free enterprise, an economic system which places few restrictions on business activities and ownership. This system allowed Ford to begin his company without restrictions from the government either preventing him from establishing it or from limiting his success. It not only helped Ford to achieve his goals in business, but it has also helped many other entrepreneurs as well. The free enterprise system has been a necessary component in allowing people, such as Henry Ford, to start, grow, and own their own businesses.

Ford demonstrates a social Darwinist not only because he exhibits the successful outcome of someone who has ideal traits for survival, but because he encourages others who live promising lives as well. “A man’s personal advancement depended entirely and immediately upon his work” (My life and work 98). Ford always made sure that men were given a fair chance toward advancements in his factory. Those who held positions of authority started from the bottom up; they all had to work just as hard to prove their worth.

This theory, Social Darwinism, was applied to the monopolistic efforts of businessmen as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. so eloquently stated: “The growth of a large business is merely the survival of the fittest” (Nash p. 417). The Gospel of Wealth based on Social Darwinism is the notion that the massive wealth held by prosperous businessmen was for the social benefit of everyone. The advocates of the Gospel of Wealth such as Andrew Carnegie, Russell Conwell, and Horatio Alger linked wealth with a sense of heightened responsibility as those with more wealth had an equally great obligation to society. Each of the advocates of the Gospel of Wealth came from diverse backgrounds, but preached the same ideals.

Henry Ford struggled with having a huge turnover rate of his employees in his factories. This turnover rate was expensive becaue Ford had to train all of the new employees and because of the downtime in production rates when people were not working. Ford came to the conclusion that in the long run it was cheaper to pay his employees more per day in order to gain their loyalty and not have to constantly be paying to trian and hire new employees. Women were not eligible for the $5 a day unless they were single and supporitng a family. Men were not eligible if their wives had jobs outside of the house.

Overall cars started a dramatic impact on society. In the 1920’s the model T was very know and was mass produced. As it was assembly line produced. As said by Henry Ford “Car prices lowered from $850 in 1908 to $300 in 1925 (The Roaring Twenty’s 6). The prices start to lower since the car was mass produced on an assembly line.

The Rise of the Automobile in 1920s in The Great Gatsby Perhaps no invention affected American everyday life in the 20th century more than the automobile. The invention and improvement of the automobile not only changed the America society, but also the whole world. The rapidly growing automobile industry led by Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produced new and better models every year to supply the insatiable public demand. Increased wages and lower cost vehicles made possible through mass production meant that cars became increasingly affordable, although 3 out of 4 cars were bought on installment plans.