The article describes the deteriorating condition of the car industry in Detroit, the very nucleus of life in this State. “The road to ruin” captures the effect of the ongoing bankruptcy of the industry and how it has affected the lives of the people, workers, and employers. The article lends itself to the discussion of socio-economic theories, notably those laid down by Henry Ford.
The car industry is the main economic activity in Detroit. The current struggle in which the main car companies, including Ford, life has had a negative impact on the livelihood of the people. The article primarily exposes how Detroit is witnessing a “meltdown”. The idea is conveyed by naming shops, restaurants, and such arteries of the economy, which have been closed down or seen their activity reduced sharply. Some working people, who collectively would constitute the working force of Detroit, are also named and their struggle to make a living is portrayed. They complain about how one job is no longer enough to make a living, now that economic activity has slowed down and jobs are no longer available in industrial firms.
The failing car industry is presented in the article concerning the times when it was flourishing. Ford industries were pioneers, back in 1920, in mass production and have been considered one of the ‘Big Three’ of the industry, the others being Chrysler and General Motors (Pilkington, 2008) – also qualified as constituting an oligopoly (Keppler,2001,6). Indeed, Ford is presented as an embodiment of American industrialization because it revolutionized the car industry. It brought with it new ways of managing industries, notably mass production via skill distribution and high wages, and boosted the car industry so that Detroit has become the American hub for this industry.
Mass production is a key concept introduced by Ford industries. It comes hand in hand with large consumption trends. This idea pertains to Fordism, concerning Henry Ford the founder of Ford industries (Storper and Scott, 1992). Fordism believes in the virtues of mass production or large outputs to be achieved thanks to the distribution of tasks- the main organizational technique advanced by Ford. To absorb such production, Fordism puts forth the idea that wages should be high so that demand gets high in turn, as people would be able to afford to buy.
On the other hand, recession has shed light on the negative impact of Detroit industrialization. If Ford’s main managerial innovation is the distribution of tasks, this point is critical the theoretical dyad of skilling and deskilling. Whereas the aim for mass production is achieved through assigning to worker a particular task which they perform constantly and with time “mechanically”, such method in particular and capitalist forms of production in general lead to the deskilling of workers. This concept, attributed to Harry Braverman, shows that workers in mass production factories grow unskillful because they are reduced to small menial jobs (Arestis and Sawyer, 2000). This explains the state of pauperization to which the laborers of Detroit has turned into. Once the car industry recessed, they found no valuable skill within their hands that would help them take on other jobs. They have had to take on another a small/ low -kill job or two in addition to their work at the car factories. The high wages concept advanced by Henry Ford becomes here inappropriate. Workers labor low-skill jobs make them in turn earn low wages. This also explains the necessity to have more than one job. Hence the virtues of industrial transformation in Detroit are played down with the setbacks of the modes of production that validate to some extent the Marxist tenet that capitalism exploits workers.
In the end, this crisis will certainly lead to theorizing about better ways to manage the car industry. The call on the part of the major firms for a bail out is interestingly contributing to the current discussion of whether a measure of government regulation is needed as opposed to adherence to an independent market economy.
Reference List
- Arestis, Philip and Sawyer, Malcolm. 2000, “Harry Bravermann” In A Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, Second Edition, pp. 79-86, Edward Elgar, UK.
- Klepper, Steven. 2001, “The Evolution of the U.S. Automobile Industry and Detroit as its Capital”, Carnegie Mellon University, DRUID Winter Conference.
- Pilkington, Ed. 2008, “The road to ruin”, The Guardian, UK.
- Schwartz, Nelson D. 2008, “Global Car Industry Fearful for Detroit”, The New York Times.
- Storper, Michael, Scott, Allen John. 1992, Pathways to Industrialization and Regional Development, Routledge, New York.