henry ford essentially created the middle class with the approach that you are saying "never makes sense"

Is there any evidence for that claim aside from it being an oft-repeated tale on the internet? Mathematically it can't possibly work, because you're spending $80k (or whatever) on an employee that might spend $30k on a car every 5 years, so paying $80k/year to get $6k/year in revenue. It's actually worse than that, because Ford only makes around 15% gross margin, so at best that's $900 of money you get back for spending $80k on an employee. That's so low that Even if you account for money multiplier effects, it's unlikely you'll get anywhere near break even.