Factory Man by Beth Macy
Being a Bassett of Bassett furniture fame was a good gig for a lot of years. As long as you could stomach working for one of your unreasonable, dictatorial, and micromanaging kinfolk, the pay was good, and the living, if not easy, beat the alternative which was not being a Bassett in Bassett, VA.
And then came China’s admission to the World Trade Organization, and it all changed.
Suddenly faced with an influx of cheap imports, the Bassetts and the other furniture families in the South, most of whom are related, made the necessary adjustments—widespread layoffs and closing factories by the dozens.
John D. Bassett III (JB III), no longer associated with his eponymous company, made different decisions at his much smaller factory located down the road in Galax, VA.
Blessed with personal wealth and chutzpa to match, he took on the Chinese. And won. Sort of.
Beth Macy has written an eminently readable book about the destruction of the domestic furniture manufacturing business as told through the eyes of the Bassett who didn’t cave to the overseas competition.
JBIII’s company, Vaughan- Bassett, is one of the only sizeable factories left in the South manufacturing (not assembling) wood furniture.
Macy is a journalist, not an economist. She competently tackles tariffs and global outsourcing, but the backbone of the book is the stories of the factory owners and their workers, both here and in China.
Clearly her sympathies lie with the 300,000 unemployed furniture workers in North Carolina and Virginia, but she approaches the controversial issues with an even hand.
Factory Man can be seen asthe counterpoint to The World is Flat, whose author Thomas Friedman is the recipient of a few barbs by Macy.
An entertaining and enlightening read. You will never look at a sofa from Restoration Hardware in the same way again.
From Bryan Burrough’s review in The Wall Street Journal
“This is nonfiction storytelling at its finest, a deep dive into a business, an industry, and the many branches of a squabbling family dynasty, all displayed against the backdrop of some of the most important issues of our age.”
Macy is also the author of Dophttps://elizabethcoltonwalls.com/dopesick/e Sick.