Sunday, December 30, 2018
Better analogy
The Tesla skeptics are focusing this morning on 'payment in kind'. Elon won't pay overtime or comp time, so he's giving the employees credit toward purchasing a Tesla car.
One of the skeptics points out that this is yet another reinvention, namely the good old Company Store.
Not quite the same thing, since the Company Store was the only place you could get food and basics.
A better analogy is a reverse one, fitting my theme today.
Henry Ford paid his employees MORE than other manufacturers because he wanted to keep them loyal and contented. He famously said that a worker should earn enough to buy what he's making.
More verbosely, the Fordist idea says that workers should have enough money to buy necessities plus a few treats and luxuries, or necessities plus saving for the future.
Elon is doing it the other way around. Instead of paying workers enough to have disposable income after necessities, he's paying the employees INADEQUATELY, on the CULTIST assumption that a Tesla car is worth infinitely more than old dull non-Disruptive non-Blockchain fiat money.
¶ 8:29 AM 
