Pagoda SL Group

W113 Pagoda SL Group => General Discussion => Topic started by: bpossel on March 13, 2009, 17:25:25

Title: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: bpossel on March 13, 2009, 17:25:25
Thought y'all would get a kick out of this ....  ;)

Bob  :)
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: mdsalemi on March 13, 2009, 17:33:36
...and good old Henry paid his workers $5 a day.  So a day's wages for body parts....
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: JamesL on March 13, 2009, 17:54:42
That was actually $12 a day if you include benefits, medical and future pension costs ;)
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: al_lieffring on March 13, 2009, 18:23:23
When the model A came out, Henry Ford discovered that there were so many model T's on road that it was deterring sales of new cars, so he would pay his Ford dealers a bounty of $25 each to take the T model trade-ins and destroy them instead of reselling them. My father found a pit on the Missouri river near St. Joseph, MO where a dealer had smashed with a bulldozer and buried dozens of model T's. My dad salvaged enough parts to make several complete cars back in the 1950's.
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: mdsalemi on March 13, 2009, 18:51:49
Tosh said: That was actually $12 a day if you include benefits, medical and future pension costs ;)

Nice try Tosh.  None of that came until organized labor at Henry's place in 1937 (The T and the $5 a day wage were gone by then) and most "benefits" as people call them were a consequence of wage controls during WWII; you know, that time when we saved those islands off the coast of Europe?? ;)

(N.B.  Sorry couldn't resist...)
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: JamesL on March 13, 2009, 20:52:13
That's OK

Lend Lease bankrupted us and cost us numerous technological gains such as the jet engine.

Bitter, moi? Not when we're all driving German cars :o :D ;)

Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: mdsalemi on March 13, 2009, 21:04:02
By Jove, I think you are on to something...

If the world isn't pining for German cars, it's Japanese cars, right?  What a twist of irony...
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: waqas on March 13, 2009, 21:15:05
If the world isn't pining for German cars, it's Japanese cars, right?  What a twist of irony...

Yes, and the Japanese are still imitating German designs....
Title: Re: When a dollar bought you more...
Post by: Faust on March 23, 2009, 15:22:40
When the model A came out, Henry Ford discovered that there were so many model T's on road that it was deterring sales of new cars, so he would pay his Ford dealers a bounty of $25 each to take the T model trade-ins and destroy them instead of reselling them. My father found a pit on the Missouri river near St. Joseph, MO where a dealer had smashed with a bulldozer and buried dozens of model T's. My dad salvaged enough parts to make several complete cars back in the 1950's.

More recently, the 70's, IBM still required that you "trade in" your old Selectric typewriter in order to get a new one. In the 70's a Selectric was $1200.00. IBM destroyed them to prevent an "aftermarket". Consider how much "word processing" $1200 will buy you today. In time Xerox brought out a "Clone" Selectric for $600.00, that will also buy a lot of "word processing" today. Come to think of it, my first "word processor" was close to $2,000. My first laser printer was about the same.

Old Henry had a lot of ties on the $5.00 a day, including church attendence.