Transcript
Introduction
“We are being born into opportunity. For hundreds of years, men have been talking about the lack of opportunity and the pressing need of dividing up things already in existence. Yet each year has seen some new idea brought forth and developed and with it, a whole new series of opportunities. Until today, we already have enough tested ideas which, put into practice, would take the world out of its sloughs and banish poverty by providing a living for all who will work. Only the old, outworn notions stand in the way of these new ideas.
The world shackles itself blind its eyes and then wonders why it cannot run. Take just one idea, a little idea in of itself, an idea that anyone might have had, but which fell to me to develop, that of making a small, strong, simple automobile, to make it cheaply and pay high wages in its making. From a mere handful of men employed in a shop, we have grown into a large industry, directly employing more than 200,000 people, not one of whom receives less than $6 a day. Our dealers and service stations employ another 200,000, but by no means do we manufacture all that we use. Roughly, we buy twice as much as we manufacture, and it is safe that another 200,000 are employed on our work outside -- in outside factories.