| In early 20th century America the vast majority of | | | | We have a seemingly similar situation occurring today. |
| people living in rural areas eked out a living in | | | | We constantly read headlines about the dying |
| agriculture. Farms were small, often sharecropped. | | | | manufacturing sector in the United States. Politicians |
| The planting and harvesting was labor intensive and | | | | love to visit deserted factories and decry the decline |
| horses provided the only source of energy for | | | | of manufacturing in a wide range of formerly |
| mechanized tilling. The vagaries of weather and | | | | profitable industries. And yet, manufacturing in |
| drought have always made farming difficult. Crops | | | | America is setting records for volumes produced, |
| were mainly grown for consumption by the | | | | shipped and invoiced. How can this dichotomy exist? |
| farmer’s family, with any extra produce bartered | | | | As with the Fordson tractors 1920’s introduction |
| for needed goods. | | | | to farmers, today’s manufacturing has evolved |
| We are all aware of the history of Henry Ford and | | | | dramatically and created disruptive technologies. |
| his invention of the production line to mass-produce | | | | Robots, software, customized computer models, |
| Model-T’s. Ford did not invent the automobile, he | | | | computer assisted design and modern |
| simply invented a method to produce cars in mass | | | | communications mean that we produce ever more |
| volumes and make them available for virtually anyone | | | | sophisticated products, in greater volumes, and at |
| wishing to purchase a horse-less carriage. He also | | | | lower prices, while needing fewer workers per unit of |
| revolutionized the agriculture business with totally | | | | production. The workers that are needed today |
| unforeseen consequences. | | | | require better education, and skills than the |
| The Ford Motor Company was always seeking new | | | | production line workers of yore. |
| avenues of distribution and business opportunities. | | | | When I was growing up in an industrial area of |
| Ford had grown up in then-rural Michigan and was | | | | America in the 1960’s many of my |
| immersed in the farm world of the age. In the | | | | contemporaries went to work with their fathers at |
| 1920’s Ford introduced the first mass-produced | | | | the local mill or factory. These were overwhelmingly |
| farm tractor, the Fordson. The machine sold for | | | | union jobs. Each of my buddies at that time thought |
| under $400 and revolutionized farming. It quickly | | | | they would be employed for life like their fathers had |
| became cheaper and less costly to own and maintain | | | | been. It has worked out that none are where they |
| a Fordson tractor than a horse. | | | | started, not one. |
| Farmers quickly gravitated to the Fordson tractor. | | | | The displacement is as painful today as it was on the |
| Crop yield per acre expanded exponentially. Farmers | | | | farm of the 1920’s. However, the benefits to |
| produced so much crop yield per acre that by the | | | | society accruing from modern manufacturing |
| middle of the 1920’s we were growing far more | | | | technologies and systems, just like the advances in |
| food than the country could consume. Prices | | | | farming owing to mechanization, cannot be denied. |
| plummeted. The need for day laborers declined | | | | Only the Luddites of the 19th century and there |
| precipitously and rural unemployment exploded. | | | | modern adherents believe life is not more |
| The collapse of crop prices, unemployment, and the | | | | comfortable today and more people have more |
| Great Plains drought were significant contributors to | | | | access to more goods and services at lower prices |
| the start of the Great Depression. The Fordson was | | | | that at any time in history. |
| an amazing improvement in the productivity and | | | | Change is hard and often inconvenient. We live during |
| ability of farmers to lead more comfortable lifestyles. | | | | an age of massive change unlike any time in history. |
| However, the “Law of Unintended | | | | The understanding of and acceptance of modern |
| Consequences” reared its ugly head in this | | | | realities insure that most people will benefit from |
| instance. The creative disruption caused by this | | | | advances in technology. Those that do not want to |
| product was thrust on a market that could not | | | | change and accept the new order of things will be |
| adjust efficiently or quickly to its significance. | | | | left behind. |