3/8/18

the US was already the leader in mass production, but European technology was generally still ahead

Europeans were impressed by the assembly line but it took years to adopt it even partially--less of a mass market

why were European markets smaller?

• countries were smaller and had different rules
• wages were lower relative to cost of living
• don't raise wages the way Ford did
• Ford needs to raise wages to have enough workers
• understands that paying workers more means selling more cars
• WWI in Europe created a manufacturing boom in the US requiring higher wages to get workers
  
• more rigid class system--cars are only for the better off

WWI made it essential to apply the assembly line to weapons

but American companies were slow to adapt their cars to European markets
European car makers used less mass production in order to be able to offer more models and more frequent model changes

workers and consumers valued individuality and tradition
the assembly line was  "a metaphor for an unwanted modernity"
modernism:

• not just what is new in the present day, but an early 20th century change
• new technology like photography causes artists to go in new directions
• modern architecture: sleek instead of decoration, embracing the technology of what you can do with a steel framed building
• modernism rejects tradition, finds new ways to do things
• re-examine everything
  

mass production better fit the values of the Soviet Union
farm machinery was particularly needed, but farmers didn't know how to take care of it

European critique of mass production and Fordism

Fiat "hand built by robots"