AHC: Forldlandia Prospers

Your challenge: For Henry Ford's city in the Amazon to prosper and survive to present day. Preferably keeping as much of his original vision for the city intact as possible -- though obviously compromises on said vision are likely necessary for this...
 
So you know how the Brazilians were getting screwed over by Ford. Replace Ford with someone nicer or just have it built for a reason over than not agreeing with the perfectly reasonable rubber monopolists at the time.

I agree. Have Ford give the operation of it to some underling. That way it only has his genius, none of his crazy, hopefully; the man had a whole lotta crazy.
 
It seems to me that Fordlandia was too ambitious. He wanted a perfect society based on his beliefs that could also create tires for his company. The goal should have been simply to create a colony in the Amazon that produces rubber. Period. No micromanaging of the workers lives. Not even production of the tires. Simply harvesting rubber.

If this was the goal I could see Fordlandia surviving as a pretty horrible place. Rubber harvesting is a terrible job. You work hard in a hot climate. Disease and death are common. Its a job you do because you are forced to.

Fordlandia would have been a plantation of the worst kind rather than a self sufficient society. To keep up with workers lost from death and fleeing, workers will be convicts or kidnapped, kept there as virtual slaves. Bribes to local governments will allow this.

Modern Slavery in Brazil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_brazil#Modern_slavery
 
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