2026-01-23
39 分钟The Economist.
Back in Detroit, Henry Ford wondered how he could bring the price of the Model T down to where everybody could buy it.
His solution?
The production line.
In 1913, the Ford Motor Company revolutionized the way cars were made.
Each man on the line became a specialist.
He did one thing, and he did it perfectly, and passed the work along to the next man.
This new, more automated approach massively sped up car production.
Then they put the parts on moving conveyor belts, and the conveyor belts grew longer and more complex.
It worked.
And output shot right up.
Mass production and the assembly line drove the price of the Model T down
from eight hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars.
Now, everybody could have one.
But not everybody was happy.
And the auto industry alone, the Big Three, have invested seven billion, two hundred million dollars
in modern, automated facilities.
And the result has been unemployment.
We had an increase in the total production of cars of fifty point five percent,
with only an increase of one-half of one percent in the labor force.