This is actually a myth (or clever PR) about Ford raising the wage to enable his employees to buy the product they were creating. There's been numerous reports that show the economics of that don't really make sense. The wage raise was actually to prevent turnover to improve productivity; it wasn't uncommon to have people walk off the assembly line mid-shift, shutting down production.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/04/the-stor...