Friday, May 28, 2010
Gilded Age 2.0
Today's headline: Ford drops Mercury. Headlines of the last few years: GM drops Pontiac, Olds, Saturn. Chrysler drops basically everything.
Notice something? The middle has dropped out. What remains? Both ends of the scale. At the top, super-aggressive pimpmobiles like Escalade and Navigator, only affordable by black drug dealers. At the bottom, Ford and Chevy for the few remaining middle-class whites. (Poor whites can't afford new cars; Jews and rich whites don't let their chauffeurs drive American cars; so those groups are out of the equation.)
Mercury provides an especially good 'gravestone' for the start and end of America, the start and end of the middle class, the start and end of the period when ordinary honest people, black or white, could live an ordinary life and buy an American car.
Born in 1939; died in 2010. = = = = = Personal note: Though Mercurys were common for a long time, they weren't common in my part of the world. I've owned two Fords (Maverick and Fiesta); I've driven innumerable Ford cars and trucks; I've ridden many times in Lincolns; but I can't remember being inside a Mercury, let alone driving one. No friends or relatives ever owned a Merc, at least while I was around. ¶ 6:34 AM
Notice something? The middle has dropped out. What remains? Both ends of the scale. At the top, super-aggressive pimpmobiles like Escalade and Navigator, only affordable by black drug dealers. At the bottom, Ford and Chevy for the few remaining middle-class whites. (Poor whites can't afford new cars; Jews and rich whites don't let their chauffeurs drive American cars; so those groups are out of the equation.)
Mercury provides an especially good 'gravestone' for the start and end of America, the start and end of the middle class, the start and end of the period when ordinary honest people, black or white, could live an ordinary life and buy an American car.
Born in 1939; died in 2010. = = = = = Personal note: Though Mercurys were common for a long time, they weren't common in my part of the world. I've owned two Fords (Maverick and Fiesta); I've driven innumerable Ford cars and trucks; I've ridden many times in Lincolns; but I can't remember being inside a Mercury, let alone driving one. No friends or relatives ever owned a Merc, at least while I was around. ¶ 6:34 AM
