Metal, Motors and Money

Timothy W. Shire - July 8, 1998

The vast expanses of North America and the apparent development of mechanical technology seems to have produce the single most dominating element in our society. It is a certainty that were we to be visited by aliens, the thing that they would notice first and remember most about us is the way we organise our movement from one place to another. The evolution of the automobile has shaped not only the economy of this continent, but it also has determined the status of its inhabitants, been seriously involved in their mating habits and is the third cause of death.

Though Henry Ford and his buddies thought they were creating a means of transportation, they actually produced a way of life. The remarkable thing about this evolution is that its unexpected continuation and perpetuation. The car as we know it, has been around now for a full hundred years and there is no sign of its importance in everyone's life subsiding. Ask any kid, male or female what is more important, getting married or