Among the ruins of Henry Ford's America
| By Mike Collins - Jun 26th, 2009 at 8:39 pm EDT |
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Categories: Economic Fairness & Security, Consumer and Worker Protection, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights
Categories: Economic Fairness & Security, Consumer and Worker Protection, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights
I read a book on economics, can't remember the name, it talked of the fact that rubber was indigenous to South America, the only problem, they couldn't get the natives to work the plantations every day or even a good part of the day. Southeast Asia became the ideal location for the French to exploit Asian labor and the ideal growing conditions for rubber trees. They went so far as to distribute opium, at first for free, then to compensate for labor in the plantations. I won't buy a Michelin product to this day because of it. Part of the Vietnam war was fought for Michelin rubber as well as the rice growing capacity of the Mekong Delta, capable of feeding most of Asia. MC
Among the ruins of Henry Ford's America
In the 1920s the auto titan strove to export his empire to the Amazon rain forest. Have you read a parable lately?
Editor's note: This article also appeared on TomDispatch.com.
By Greg Grandin
June 26, 2009 | The empire ends with a pullout. Not, as many supposed, a few years ago, from Iraq. But from Detroit.
Of course, the real evacuation of the Motor City began decades ago, when Ford, General Motors and Chrysler started to move more of their operations to harder-to-unionize rural areas and suburbs, and, finally, overseas. Even as the economy boomed in the 1950s and 1960s, nearly 50 Detroit residents a day were packing up and leaving their city. By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Detroit could count tens of thousands of empty lots and over 15,000 abandoned homes. Stunning Beaux Arts and modernist buildings were left deserted to return to nature, their floors and roofs covered by switch grass. They now serve as ornate birdhouses.
Still, in mythological terms, Detroit remains the ancestral birthplace of American capitalism. In years to come, the sudden disintegration of the Big Three will be seen as a blow to American power comparable to the end of the Raj, Britain's loss of India, that jewel in the imperial crown, in 1948. Forget the possession of a colony or the bomb, in the second half of the 20th century, the real marker of a world power was the ability to make a precision V-8.
More at Salon.Com
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/26/fordlandia/
Among the ruins of Henry Ford's America
In the 1920s the auto titan strove to export his empire to the Amazon rain forest. Have you read a parable lately?
Editor's note: This article also appeared on TomDispatch.com.
By Greg Grandin
June 26, 2009 | The empire ends with a pullout. Not, as many supposed, a few years ago, from Iraq. But from Detroit.
Of course, the real evacuation of the Motor City began decades ago, when Ford, General Motors and Chrysler started to move more of their operations to harder-to-unionize rural areas and suburbs, and, finally, overseas. Even as the economy boomed in the 1950s and 1960s, nearly 50 Detroit residents a day were packing up and leaving their city. By the time the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Detroit could count tens of thousands of empty lots and over 15,000 abandoned homes. Stunning Beaux Arts and modernist buildings were left deserted to return to nature, their floors and roofs covered by switch grass. They now serve as ornate birdhouses.
Still, in mythological terms, Detroit remains the ancestral birthplace of American capitalism. In years to come, the sudden disintegration of the Big Three will be seen as a blow to American power comparable to the end of the Raj, Britain's loss of India, that jewel in the imperial crown, in 1948. Forget the possession of a colony or the bomb, in the second half of the 20th century, the real marker of a world power was the ability to make a precision V-8.
More at Salon.Com
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/26/fordlandia/
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