In 1919, the Dodge Brothers sued Henry Ford for “paying his workers too much.” Not only did they win, but it established something called Shareholder Primacy, which essentially requires corporations to put profits over people. Ford was against this.In 1919 the Dodge Brothers sued Henry Ford for “paying his workers too much.”
— Brett Pike (@ClassicLearner) February 20, 2025
Not only did they win, but it established something called Shareholder Primacy - which essentially requires corporations to put profits over people.
Ford was against this.
-He paid his workers… pic.twitter.com/zxH5NwfZ2m
> He paid his workers double the wages of competitors.
> Established the 40-hour work week when everyone else had their employees working 60 hours.
> Established a school with free tuition in which he actually paid the students to learn.
> Refused to charge interest when selling his cars.
One of the all-time great Americans.
Anyone who understands this viral meme will understand why virtually every Fortune 500 company in America sucks. It references the time that the Dodge Brothers had sued Henry Ford as Ford wanted to use extra profits to raise wages and employ more people. So the Dodge Brothers, who were shareholders in the company, sued him, saying that a corporation's only responsibility is to increase shareholder value. And it's true. The Dodge Brothers sued Henry Ford in 1919 as the Dodge Brothers wanted larger dividends but Ford argued that he was reinvesting profits to improve working conditions and lower the price of cars in fact when Ford rolled out the $5 work day he was paying his workers double the wages of his competitors. I mean just imagine you sit down with your boss and he tells you he's going to pay you double what the company across town is paying and it was Ford who normalized and popularized the 40-hour work week. Before Ford did that most factory workers worked 6 days a week for 60 hours a week. This guy was so pro-people, in fact, he started a school that was not only free but his students were paid a salary they would learn through hands-on work. The only catch was they weren't allowed to touch the money until they graduated, so they had to put it in a savings account. And then when they graduated, they would have a high-paying job at double the wages of their competitor's waiting for them, [plus] savings and they'd be used to be able to use a down payment to buy a house. Oh, and when Ford sold people cars, he didn't charge them interest because he believed that usury was a sin. So he allowed people to pay for their cars in installments, and the price listed was the price paid. And if corporations today were run the way Henry Ford ran things, the world would be such a better place. But the Court ruled in favor of the Dodge Brothers, establishing Shareholder Primacy, that the interest of corporate shareholders is legally above everything else. Profits over people. This is why it's so important that we support small privately owned companies over large publicly traded corporations.
The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and The Legacy, Charles K. Hyde, 2023.
