Grace Christiansen Honors English 10, Siharath April 24, 2024. Henry Ford, an American industrialist, once said, “To be good is not enough; a man must be good for something.” Undoubtedly, this means that having skill in something is too little; you need to use what you have for something beyond yourself, no matter how big or small of an impact. Namely, Henry Ford was able to use his abilities of engines at a higher level, which led to a major influence in automobiles. Born and raised on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, he attended school for eight years before leaving for Detroit in 1879 to start machining. From there, he completed his first car at Bagley Avenue Workshop. As a result of his aid in the business of cars and staking consumerism, …show more content…
However, the Model-T, one of Henry Ford’s designs, kindled the future of car manufacturing and empowered society. Commenced in 1908, this product ignited a new way for Americans to transport, live, and work. This is because the Model-T was much more durable than other cars at the time. It was able to travel for greater distances, allowing buyers to drive to work more frequently and get to farther places with ease. Equally important, it also endowed affordability for most classes of people, starting at about $850, while other companies sold for $2000 or more. As a result, prices dropped to $260 by 1924, sparking a rise in consumerism for the Model-T. While Ford’s company continued to thrive, he also achieved a level of mass customization to satisfy customer needs (ASME, 2008). In consequence, Ford assembled over 15 million Model-Ts, pervading his innovations beyond the United States (Rory Fabian, 2023, paragraph 1). Later on, manufactured automobiles were heavily based on the Model-T, and cars in today’s world would be greatly different without Ford’s design. Concisely, Henry Ford’s Model-T motivated society by becoming affordable to more people, improving transportation, and becoming the basis for cars in the