America is the country of great opportunities and of great disappointments as well. People come to America from all over the world having dreams of getting jobs and being able to feed their families and have proper standards of living (Noon and Blyton, 2002). However, the situation with the Giant Three plants in Detroit, i. e. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, proves that in America people are also subjected to exploitation and unemployment.
The article by Pilkington (2008) depicts vividly the situation in the city of Detroit where the bulk of citizens are employed by car manufacturers that experience their worst times ever. Therefore, people face staff cutting, salary decreases, etc. and cannot be sure anymore that they would have money to buy food for their families. As Detroit is basically built around the car factories, in case of the collapse of the latter, Detroit citizens will be left with no jobs and no means for living at all.
Drawing from this, the article by Pilkington (2008) touches upon the internal Detroit issues that, however, have considerable nationwide political and social effects. The latter can be considered using Marx’s exploitation theory and the deskilling theory by Blaumer. Both these theories consider the role of people in the production process and argue that businesses use the skills of employees without caring of people’s lives at all (Best, 2009).
Thus, political issues presented by Pilkington (2008) concern mainly the request of help that the CEOs of the Giant Three made to the US Government. They asked for $25 billion as they lost $73 billion over the past three years, but they came to ask for help on their personal corporate jets. The irony of the situation illustrates Marx’s theory of exploitation according to which the privileged few benefit from the work of their employees who are left without means of living and survival (Best, 2009).
The latter is also considered in the article by Pilkington (2008) who vividly describes the lives of ordinary people in the area near the car factories in Detroit. The author appeals to readers’ emotion by depicting closed stores and abandoned homes from which people deprived of work had to escape looking for the ways to survive. Here, the exploitation theory by Marx comes again into play as the high ranking officials of GM or Chrysler will definitely recover the recession while numbers of people are left without jobs (Best, 2009).
Many scholars view this situation to be the natural result of Ford’s mass production initiatives that were intended as positive actions aimed at bringing access to cars to more people (Noon and Blyton, 2002). But mass production led to automation and lack of jobs for the people employed before. As a result, Ford’s mass production ideas, also called Fordism, led to the gradual decline of his own creation (Best, 2009).
And here Blaumer’s deskilling theory comes into play with the notions of alienation and conflict. The former referrers to the process of losing professional skills by GM, Chrysler, and Ford workers, who do not have practice for long periods of time. The latter, i. e. conflict, reflects the tension to arise between the employers and employees in case if people do not find alternative employment options shortly (Best, 2009). Thus, the situation described by Pilkington (2008) is the first stage of Blaumer’s theory but it promises to escalate into a more serious issue in the near future.
To conclude, the gradual decline of Ford, Chrysler, and GM plants in Detroit is the result of Ford’s mass production initiatives and the improper management of the companies mentioned. Human resources policies were aimed mainly at increasing productivity while the needs of people were forgotten, which led to the high unemployment rates in the city and to the decline of automotive industry of Detroit.
Reference List
- Pilkington, E 2008, ‘The Road To Ruin’, The Guardian, A3.
- Noon, M and Blyton, P 2002, Realities Of Work, Palgrave Macmillan; 2nd edition.
- Best, B 2009, Thoughts of Exploitation Theory, Polecon.