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“They don’t make them like they used to!”
It’s a refrain we hear often from the older generation around us, and about pretty much everything – cars, washing machines, people – and even though most of us may just roll our eyes and mutter “OK, Boomer,” one Tumblr user was on the same page:
https://princealigorna.tumblr.com/post/179536633233/and-this-is-why-we-used-to-make-cars-out-of-steel
Yeah. That old car acted like my grandpa used to when a bee stung him in the garden – he grunted, swiped it away, and went about his business.
Luckily for all of us younguns, though, someone else on Tumblr was there to tell us exactly why (at least when it comes to cars) it’s a really, really good thing they don’t make them like they used to.
This one is a bit of a read, but we promise you want to read ALL OF IT, because it’s so worth it. For reals.
https://becausedragonage.tumblr.com/post/179727413742/freshest-tittymilk-princealigorna-and-this
Just in case you didn’t get all of that last post… here it is..
You guys are obscenely, dangerously wrong.
It’s not planned obsolescence, it’s physics.
Modern cars crumple to absorb and distribute the forces of impact in an accident in an effort to protect the occupants. When cars didn’t have those crumple zones, the occupants, being the soft, squishy things they were, took those forces and were mangled or killed in horrible ways. Also, those older cars took hidden damage that often went unnoticed and made them very dangerous to drive. IT’s really easy to hide a twisted frame when all you need to do to make the car look okay is a bit of sanding and paint.
I recently watched a TV show where a small sedan was run over by the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler. Run. Over. They had to unwrap the crumpled ball of a car from the undercarriage of that trailer. Guess what? The driver suffered only minor injuries because the car collapsed in exactly the way it was designed to so that she, in the very strong frame surrounding the passenger compartment, was protected.
And no, don’t thank capitalism for these modern cars. Thank Ralph Nader and countless other safety activists who worked tirelessly to make car manufacturers accountable for the safety of the people who drove their cars.
Yeah, THAT!
While there are legitimate criticisms about the throwaway mentality that capitalism has engendered in American society, vehicle safety has improved dramatically over the last several decades.
This is one area where government regulation has made a huge difference, and it is quite literally life or death.
Seems like the government isn’t always out to get us, y’all – they’re actually trying to help!
Who knew?!
