How the Dodge Brothers Ruined Everything

I once walked into a friend’s new apartment, which he had decked out with black leather couches from a yard sale. “This,” he confessed, “is my American Asshole furniture.”

The phenomenon of the American asshole may have begun in 1919, with the Dodge brothers. The day after attending Henry Ford’s son Edsel’s wedding, they sued Ford (in whom’s company they owned a 10% stake).

Ford had wanted to use his extra profits to raise employee wages and hire more people. The Dodges argued in their suit that a corporation’s only responsibility was to increase shareholder value. They won, of course.

The Dodge brothers: American assholes.