Jul 03 2011 05:29 pm
Posted by Hailie J under July 5 Assignment
Development of Manufacturing (Detroit vs. New York))
While New York City was the capital of many kinds of consumer goods manufacturing such as clothing, furniture and so forth, Detroit became automobile capital in twentieth century. By that time Ford, General Motors and Crysler were considered as three big automakers. When industry moved out of the urban city, most of white collar workers come after to be near their jobs. At the same time, the development of automobile industry brought enormous number of immigrants and migrants into Detroit in beginning of twentieth century. One another reason that people started to move to suburban is many american car companies produced cheaper one, so that even low wage job workers could afford to get one. While people in New York City tended to use public transportation , for instance subway or streetcars, people in other suburban started to drive a car to the city for work.
One Response to “Development of Manufacturing (Detroit vs. New York))”
patricia.ibarra on 06 Jul 2011 at 1:36 pm #
I agree with your comment in how Detroit became the automobile capital in the 20th century and how the immigration expanded over there as a result of the many jobs Ford gave in his assembly line. However, I would like to make a comment about the second video you posted which really caught my eye. In the video it explains what really meant to be a Ford worker. People who worked over there were assigned a badge which was a sort of symbol of pride by that time to be a Ford worker. Employers even used to wear it on Sunday mornings in the local church and even use it to get girls. However not all is as good as it sounds. One negative effect about working in an assembly line would be the loss of trade skills among the workforce. For instance, if one man knows hows to build a car from start to finish, he has a complete trade skill. However, in an assembly line, each line worker focuses entirely on only one aspect of the trade, perhaps shaping a bumper or installing a door, etc. If the line worker should lose their job and then seek employment, the only skill they would have would be the one they did on the line, rather than having a complete trade skill. This can severely limit job opportunities when searching through the job market. Also, as seen in the video, most people probably don’t enjoying doing the same boring thing over and over for many years.