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It is because of fordism that the world grew. While the assembly line allowed for a reduction in workforce size, far more jobs were created than lost. As more and more cars were produced, there was a need for more and more roads. And with those roads came a need for "roadside" business. Motels, cafes, gasoline stations, these were all natural outgrowths to the increased use of the automobile which Henry ford had created.
The cheap automobile also led to the development of suburbia. In the past people had needed to live where they had worked. The U.S population had either lived on the farm or in the city. But the automobile allowed people to live outside the cities. Housing developments began to grow outside the cities. Land was cheaper outside the cities and therefore to live in the suburban areas was cheaper and so of course popular. Henry Ford showed that properly used, the assembly line could reduce manufacturing costs, and it did not take long for other industrialists to follow this idea. Suddenly people were able to afford "labor saving" products like washing machines and hovers. They were able to purchase radios which became a huge part of the media. As you can imagine all of these things were a major part of the development of modern societies in the post war period.
The assembly line, mass production, and the proliferation of automobiles have also had its negative effects on society. To begin with the assembly line in itself was dehumanizing. Ford himself said "the man who puts in a bolt does not put on the nut; the man who puts on the nut does not tighten it". The assembly line turns a human craftsman into part of a machine. This dehumanizing process has also unfortunately greatly affected our society. Each worker on the line has a specific task to perform, repeatedly and monotonously for hours on end. The more specialized each worker becomes, the more efficient the line.
