Can We Be Proud Of The Global Car Industry?

Auto manufactureing is an over one trillion dollar industry that does the very important jobs of (1) keeping a good percentage of the world’s population busy from 9 to 5 and (2) giving us machines to zip around in. But can we, as humans, really be proud of what it produces?

I normally think abut the car industry, as a whole, in a positive light. When it comes to all of the inventions ever produced by humankind, I like to think that cars are right up by the top. Cars have granted the world’s population a degree of mobility and independence never before seen. Trains, ships, planes, dirigibles, motorcycles – they all have been nowhere near as effective or wide-reaching as automobiles when it comes to increasing the global population’s mobility.

But a line by rifraphy in response to Jason’s question about ‘what car would you show off to aliens‘ made me wonder.

This article is excellent, and I applaud the author.

It ideally explains why I like cars. Cars are everything that’s good about humans. Cars are a representation of everything.

Although to be honest I think sending them a car would give them false hope. When they buzz down here and find all the bad stuff – and let’s be honest, there’s a lot of it – they’ll be disappointed.

This has me wondering, can I really be proud of the global car industry? As a whole, it’s very good at building very marketable vehicles that make a lot of money, but are they really as good as they can be for the wellbeing for humankind? This isn’t just a question of safety or pollution – are today’s cars something we can be proud of as humans? Are they really demonstrative of the best technology we have to offer as a population? Does the typical car show off our ability to produce speed, comfort and design we’ve never reached before? Are our cars representative of the fact that we, as a people, are at the pinnacle of our technological development?

I would say no. What about you?

4 Comments on "Can We Be Proud Of The Global Car Industry?"

DC on Thu, 12th Sep 2013 11:57 pm 



I can only imagine the question is a rhetorical one. Gas-powered cars are destroying the planet-period.

As for the illusions of ‘mobility and independence’ they are just that, illusions. Cars require vast, expensive, purpose built infrastructure. Without which cars would be even more useless than they are now. They kill over a million people a year now. They require constant maintenance, and above all fuel-or else they are just a 4000 pound liability. Even when they are moving-they are nothing to write home about either. Either stuck in a traffic jam, or causing an accident somewhere.

The write seems oblivious to the fact that all that ‘mobility’ serves in most cases, no purpose, other than to extract wealth from a population that has been given few, if any alternatives to it. If I am forced to drive 20 miles to a big box store in a gas-powered trash can to buy $10.00 worth of groceries, I am hardly about to thank the global auto-cartel for providing me with that costly and pollution laden ‘mobility’ I require to get me there am I?

Trains and ships, bikes, mass-transit and well designed cities would obviate the need for all this excessive ‘mobility’ in the first place. That we *require* that mobility and have been made virtual slaves to it, is the real issue.

GregT on Fri, 13th Sep 2013 3:26 am 



The automobile, one more example of why the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Henry Ford is rolling over in his grave.

BillT on Fri, 13th Sep 2013 5:12 am 



Cars are like AIDS … exciting to acquire, but at a great cost. Few Americans can afford a car, but the culture almost demands they own at least one, even if they give over 1/5 of their life for the addiction. Figure out what YOUR car is costing you over it’s lifetime. If you have a middle class income, you work at least one day in 5 to pay for your car and all the attached costs: payments, insurance, inspections, repairs, worn replacements, fuel, taxes, transfers, registration, driver’s license, etc.

If you own a car for 50 years as I did, you gave 5 -10 years of your life for it.

LT on Fri, 13th Sep 2013 5:47 am 



I agree with all of those three comments above!