America stands at a crossroads, and Ford CEO Jim Farley knows it. In a recent interview at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Farley pulled back the curtain on a troubling reality facing American manufacturing: young Americans simply don’t see a future in factory work. This isn’t a minor inconvenience—it’s a flashing red warning sign for a nation that built its strength, prosperity, and pride on the backbone of American manufacturing.
Farley’s wake-up call came directly from longtime Ford employees themselves—men and women who have dedicated their lives to the company. “None of the young people want to work here,” they told Farley bluntly, as quoted by Fortune. The reason is stark. At wages of just $17 an hour, many young Ford workers found themselves forced to clock additional shifts at Amazon warehouses just to make ends meet. Imagine that: the next generation of American manufacturers, overworked and exhausted, sleeping three or four hours a night just to pay rent.
This isn’t the America First vision President Trump and conservative leaders have fought to restore. We envision strong American manufacturing that provides secure, well-paying jobs to our citizens, not an economy where workers juggle multiple low-wage gigs. Farley himself recognized this, drawing inspiration from none other than Henry Ford. In 1914, Ford doubled factory wages to an unprecedented $5 a day—transforming American manufacturing and enabling workers to buy the very cars they built. He understood a simple truth: prosperity begins at home.
Today, Farley has taken a page directly from Henry Ford’s playbook. Ford Motor Company has now transitioned temporary workers into full-time positions, offering higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and superior health care. As Farley put it, “It wasn’t easy to do. It was expensive. But I think that’s the kind of changes we need to make in our country.”
“The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,’” Farley said.
Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
Farley’s actions underscore a broader truth conservatives have long championed: a thriving manufacturing sector is not just an economic necessity, it’s a patriotic duty. For decades, globalist elites hollowed out our factories, shipped jobs overseas, and left American workers behind. President Trump reversed this disastrous trend, but the work is far from finished. Companies like Ford must continue stepping up, embracing their responsibility to invest in American workers and ensure the continuity of our manufacturing legacy.
Furthermore, Farley points directly to education as a key battleground. “Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades,” he argues. Countries like Germany understand this—they prepare young workers through apprenticeships and robust vocational training. Here at home, we’ve allowed elitist attitudes to stigmatize trade schools, steering young people away from honorable and lucrative careers in manufacturing and skilled trades. This has to change, and it can change, through strong leadership and smart policies.
But the burden can’t fall solely on companies like Ford. Farley is right when he suggests we need cooperative action from state and federal governments to incentivize trade education, apprenticeship programs, and fair wages. The sooner we realize vocational training isn’t a backup plan, but a cornerstone of American prosperity, the sooner we can rebuild our nation’s proud manufacturing juggernaut.
America’s strength has always come from the hard work and ingenuity of our own people. Jim Farley’s decision to follow Henry Ford’s example is a powerful reminder that when we invest in our own workers, we build a stronger economy, a stronger society, and ultimately, a stronger America. This is the America First vision in action: putting our people, our workers, and our nation first—every single day.
Comments are closed.