Hedrick Smith & Paul Krugman: Best of the Week

Mon. Sept. 10, 2012:


Two outstanding articles, which even the young & busy should read:


1.  Hedrick Smith, "When Capitalists Cared:  Henry Ford recognized that business succeeds when workers do":

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/opinion/henry-ford-when-capitalists-cared.html

Excerpts:

"In the rancorous debate over how to get the sluggish economy moving, we have forgotten the wisdom of Henry Ford.  In 1914, not long after the Ford Motor Company came out with the Model T, Ford made the startling announcement that he would pay his workers the unheard-of-wage of $5 a day.

Not only was it a matter of social justice, Ford wrote, but paying high wages was also smart business.
When wages are low, uncertainty dogs the marketplace and growth is weak.  But when pay is high and steady, Ford asserted, business is more secure because workers earn enough to become good customers.  They can afford to buy Model Ts . . . "

"Today the prevailing cut-to-the-bone business ethos means that a company like Caterpillar demands a wage freeze and lower health benefits from its workers, while posting record profits . . . "

"It's time for America's business elites to step beyond political rhetoric about protecting wealthy 
'job creators' an grasp Ford's insight:  Give the middle class a better share of the nation's economic gains, and the economy will grow faster.  Our history shows that."


2.  Paul Krugman, "Rosie Ruiz Republicans:  Political fakery, fiscal and otherwise":

Excerpts:

[Maybe GOP veep candidate Paul Ryan really does have a problem with the truth?
Now, he has been caught telling a fib about running a sub-3 hour marathon.]

"Mr. Ryan tried to laugh the whole thing off as a simple error.  But serious runners find that implausible:  the difference between sub-three and over-four is the difference between extraordinary and perfectly ordinary, and it's not something a runner could get wrong, unless he's a fabulist who imagines his own reality . . . "

"What makes this incident so striking is . . . the way it resonates with the essential Rosie-Ruizness of Mr. Ryan's whole political persona, which is built around big boasts about accomplishments he hasn't accomplished."