this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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Back in Lincoln's day, the Republicans really were about 'trickle up' economics. Henry Ford paid people enough to buy his cars. Now it's "I can pay half the working class to kill the other half."
Henry Ford did that as a business decision. He didn't care about the workers.
He did it because people were quitting after working only a short time. Remember he didn't invent the car, he invented the assembly line. Working hard wasn't new. Working in a factory wasn't new. But doing boring monotonous work was new.
I believe he also demanded that workers not drink during their time off, or other similar restrictions on private life. It was a well paying job, but it demanded a lot. He wasn't doing it out of the goodness of his heart.
I wasn't trying to present Ford as a hero of the working man. I was trying to show that Ford understood that workers are a resource, not a burden.
You're right about him not wanting workers drinking. Two stories I've heard. The first is that he helped create Prohibition because he thought banning liquor would stop people from drinking. The other is that he helped start a lot of small banks. Workers were taking their paychecks to bars and getting them cashed there. When the bars closed, the workers needed a new place to get their money,