Ford CEO Jim Farley has been ringing the alarm bell for months about what he sees as a “crisis” in what he calls “the essential economy”: everyday industries that build and fix things. In other words, he thinks the blue-collar backbone of America is being ignored, even with all the hype about artificial intelligence eating up entry-level jobs. (Farley himself has famously predicted that AI will destroy up to half of white-collar employment.)
Onstage at the Ford Pro Accelerate summit earlier this week, organized by Farley to bring together business leaders to discuss big-picture solutions, the Ford leader revealed that his own son was openly questioning whether to go to college, having really enjoyed his summer job as a mechanic. “Dad, I really like this work,” Farley recalled hearing from him, “I don’t know why I need to go to college.” In a podcast appearance with The Verge’s Nilay Patel published around the same time, Farley talked more about the journey that he and his son Jameson are taking.
Speaking on the Decoder podcast, Farley argued that “we all need to look at ourselves and decide what kind of society we want to build in America.” His son is 17 and a senior in high school, and Farley, who receives well over $20 million in compensation per year, acknowledged that his son has “got every opportunity that you could ever imagine. He doesn’t have to worry like most people.” Still, Farley said, he made sure that Jameson “had a summer job where he learned how to weld, to fabricate, to really work with his hands, and relate to people.” If he goes on to pursue a career in the trades, Farley added that he will be “so thrilled as a parent.”
