Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save An American Town (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
One of the most challenging issues facing the United States in the 21st century is how to cope with the consequences of economic globalization. Free trade agreements along with the adoption of free market principles in communist countries such as China and Vietnam have resulted in rapid and dramatic changes in the U.S. labor market, generally to the detriment of those at its lowest levels. Beth Macy looks at this challenge by focusing on how one industry centered in southwest Virginia and northern North Carolina coped with these changesThe furniture manufacturing industry that was formed in this area, founded largely by a small cadre of families in the early 20th century, grew and thrived based on an ethic of hard work, innovation, luck, connections and ruthlessness. Macy concentrates her story on the businesses spawned by one family – the Bassetts. Descendants of an old Virginia family, John D. Bassett, Charles Columbus Bassett, Samuel H. Bassett, and Reed L. Stone started Bassett furniture in 1902. From that time until the 1980s Bassett Furniture and the companies spun off from it grew to be the largest furniture manufacturer in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. Bassett,VA, where the company was formed became a company town, with the Bassett family and the Bassett furniture company providing not only jobs but virtually all the other institutions and services required to service its population, including schools, banks, places of worship, and housing. This arrangement helped keep Bassett furniture supplied with steady labor, while at the same time providing its employees with a comfortable level of stability. This arrangement began to crumble however as the balance of trade began to favor formerly closed societies that were implementing capitalist economies.By the beginning of the 21st century Asian manufacturers found ways to produce furniture of competitive quality with that produced in the United States at a much lower price. Eventually American companies, unable to compete, began importing furniture and furniture parts from these manufacturers, resulting in the rapid closing of their plants in the United States, Bassett Furniture included. For the workers formerly employed at these plants, globalization was beginning to look like the apocalypse as thousands lost their formerly secure jobs. In an economy where the quarterly bottom line was becoming the yardstick by which success was measured, their plight was of little concern. One man, however, tried to buck that trend.John D. Bassett III had spent his formative years learning the furniture industry working for his family’s company and believed he would one day be its chairman. However, as time went on it became apparent this would not happen. He left the company his family built and eventually took over operation of the much smaller Vaughan-Bassett furniture company in Galax, VA. That company had become moribund, set in its ways, and saw its sales shrink and the quality of its offerings decline. John D. Bassett III turned the company around, instituting a hard charging attitude that saw the company adopt among other things an express service that provided a service that retailers who relied on imported Asian furniture could not compete with, rapid delivery of orders in less than a week. This allowed these retailers to minimize the inventory they had to keep on hand, thus reducing overhead costs. Despite these innovations however, by the early 2000s Vaughan-Bassett was beginning to slip behind, unable to keep up with the low prices offered by his Asian based competition; prices he believed that were not in line with the cost of their manufacture. Bassett was sure the Chinese were dumping cheap furniture into the American market in order to drive out competition.In the two decades after the death of Mao tse Tung China became one of the top exporters in the world, eventually surpassing Japan and South Korea as the main trading partner with the United States. In 2001 they became a member of the World Trade Organization, a compact set up to “review and propagate … national trade policies, and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making.” Among these policies was an agreement not to dump cheap goods subsidized by government funding into foreign markets in order to drive out competing businesses. In 2003 it became apparent to John D. Bassett III that China was dumping cheap furniture into the American market in violation of this obligation. Rather than accept this as the natural result of evolution in the marketplace as many American manufacturers and retailers who were benefiting from these low prices were willing to do, Bassett formed a coalition of manufacturers and successfully fought China, winning a large settlement which he invested in his manufacturing operation, and saving his company and the 700 jobs that went along with it. For this action he is regarded as a hero in his adopted hometown of Galax, VA.I really did enjoy this book for the most part. The first half or so recounts the genealogy of the Bassett family, their entry into the furniture manufacturing business, and the inevitable conflict that results when a company stays in one family for so long. In many ways the Bassetts were not all that likeable. They could be condescending to their employees, did everything they could to keep unions out of their factories, and in general behaved as you would expect good old boy millionaires from southwest Virginia would act. They were just really full of themselves, a trait I find very unattractive.The sections of the book that dealt with John D. Bassett III’s fight against the Chinese, and his effort to save his company and the jobs it provided was riveting, and it really gave a human face to the consequences of globalization. Where labor used to be viewed as an asset, it has now simply become another cost center to be trimmed, with little thought given to the effect that trimming would have. As a result we are going through a massive shift in what kinds of jobs workers are trained for, and are reorienting how our economy relates with its trading partners. As John D.Bassett III showed however, manufacturing in the United States can survive as long as it stays nimble, combative, innovative, and has leaders who are unwilling to view its existence solely in terms of its bottom line. This book received excellent reviews in the press, but I was disappointed. On the surface, the idea is interesting: the owner of a large Virginia furniture manufacture does battle with cheap imports. However, the story, particularly the history of the company and the family who owned it, was confusing and difficult to follow. Discussions jumped all over the place. The result is an incoherent and frustrating narrative. On the plus side, there are some interesting characters and the reader comes to appreciate the impact of globalization. The author should be commended for presenting a balanced view of international trade, tariffs, and protectionism.
What do You think about Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save An American Town (2014)?
For my Non Fiction reading Econ type friends, Found Factory Man by Beth Macy a worthy read.
—Sarah
A shockingly relatable account of the impacts of globalization on small town Virginia.
—dwaller75
excellent. our country needs more people like him.
—PurpleAlbinoPanda
