Steven Watts

“I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best material, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one—and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.18 Defining the motorcar as a necessity “that would meet the wants of the multitude,” Ford linked his vehicle to a larger vision of contentment through consumption. In My Life and Work, he dismissed some businessmen's fears of overproduction and market saturation with a utopian vision of consumer abundance: We believe it is possible some day to reach the point where all goods are produced so cheaply and in such quantities that overproduction can be a reality. But as far as we are concerned, we do not look forward to that condition with fear—we look forward to it with great satisfaction…. Our fear is that this condition will be too long postponed.”
― Steven Watts, The People's Tycoon

“few less smart-aleck attorneys and a few more Henry Fords, and the world would have less troubles and more to eat.” Ford, added another small-town paper, ”comes nearer being typical of the average, energetic, courageous, honest, uncultured American than any other one man in this country….”
― Steven Watts, The People's Tycoon