The Flivver King: A Story of Ford-America

Abner, who experiences malnourishment and loses a finger at fourteen years old as a result of a depression, thinks of economic hard times as “a natural phenomenon like winter itself, mysterious, universal, cruel” (12). He and his family suffer terribly each time the economy takes a downturn: Abner’s parents die during the Great Depression and he is unable even to give his mother a proper burial; Milly and Daisy become household drudges in turn, each of them weakened by the labor of caring for the family during times of great privation. But the Shutts also suffer whenever Ford updates his production methods to make them more efficient and cost-effective; the assembly-line, with its speed-ups and stretch-outs, sends Abner home exhausted every night and turns him into an old man before his time.

The family’s attempts to secure a middle-class existence costs them a great deal of money, money that ends up in someone else’s pocket. For example, they buy a house when Abner gets a bonus, and the bank collects a tremendous amount of interest from these humble people:

They paid thirty-one hundred and fifty dollars for the house, which they could have got for a thousand dollars less in the Before Bonus days. They paid six hundred dollars down, which was practically everything they had been able to save in ten years, and they agreed to pay twenty dollars a month, plus interest, which at the beginning amounted to some thirteen dollars a month additional. The taxes would be a surprise item the agent had avoided mentioning them, and the family had never owned any property before. The interest would diminish, but they would be paying on the principal for the next eleven years (59-60).

The Shutts continue to lead a poor lifestyle, since prices have risen as a result of Ford’s announcement about the bonuses. Though Abner does eventually buy a car, he is never able to fulfill his dream of taking Milly and the children into the countryside to buy cheap vegetables, since the farmers too must raise their prices.

At the same time, Ford’s reputation benefits tremendously from the bonus system. As he finds increasingly more ways to employ fewer men, and demand more work from each of them, his profits continue to increase until he becomes a billionaire.