Henry Ford.

The guy was a dirtbag Nazi sympathizer.

But I digress.

 

Yeah, he is generally considered a dirt-bag but he did do some good along the way like purchase of the Wayside Inn in 1923
and restored the dilapidated old building to its original charm as immortalized by Longfellow in Tales of a Wayside Inn



Wayside Inn Sudbury, Massachusetts





Hotwater

 

He was brilliant but he was also an antisemitic jackass.

 

All the people complaining about him would be happy he was around in order to save triple or more the amount of money it cost to buy their car.

 

Wat?

What would Henry Ford, straight out of the early 20th century, bring to today's auto manufacturing? We've already taken his idea of the assembly line and perfected it with robots and whatnot. Not much more left for him to offer (other than maybe a few snyde remarks about Jews.)

 

People like him and Edison definitely aren't as revered as they were say just 20 years ago.

 

You may have never had those robots assembling cars without him.

 

Ford was a weird mix of extremes. He raised the salary of his assembly line workers from a dollar a day to five dollars a day so they could afford to buy one of his cars and the idea paid off. That's a radical idea even by today's standards and certainly not the kind of thing dirt bags are famous for.

 

I don't think it's wise to judge a historical figure completely by the moral standard of today. Abe Lincoln was an ignorant Racist by today's standards. We are all products of our environment and if you were raised 100 years ago you wouldn't be the same person you are now.

There are things we can learn from people we disagree with. Some assholes are really smart and can benefit society in many ways despite being an ass. We can appreciate those benefits while also recognizing their shortcomings.

There are two quotes from Henry Ford that have stuck with me over the years:

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that even the greatest of airplanes always take off against the wind and never with it.

A bore is man who opens his mouth and places in it his feats.

 

His hemp car during WWII was a noble venture, and had our government embraced it we would be in. Abetter place today.

 

Yes Henry Ford did some good, but he was also a notorious anti-Semite and favorite of Adolf Hitler. So much so that Henry Ford is actually quoted by Hitler in “Mein Kampf.”
And he was given the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime’s highest honor that can be bestowed upon a foreigner.