Yeah, but much of that immediate post-WW2 prosperity was backed by the feel-good climate that the end of a war brings, and the existence of a hungry market keen to show itself climbing up the ladder of the American Dream. Appetites were honed by yearly model changes, and for decades that was enough.
In the UK and much of Europe, car ownership before that war was a pretty exclusive deal, the man-in-the-street not really having much of a chance to climb aboard. New cars, straight after the war, were as rare as hens’ teeth, and it was the upmarket marques that flourished at first, just as they had been doing before the war. However, the same post-war boom that hit the US also hit Europe, but for very different reasons: the essential reconstruction of homes and factories, flattened by Nazi bombs and rockets. This created full employment, and as old cars came onto the market, many a tradesperson found himself able to put down a deposit and enter a new competition…
Now, not having a car carries with it a kind of stigma, even as the opportunity to get a driving licence becomes more and more expensive and waits for test dates interminable, especially near big conurbations. You might be able to put your money down, but if you can’t get a licence, not a lot of good that’ll do ya! On the other hand, I seem to meet young people with no desire for cars or the required licences to drive ‘em. That seems strange; maybe an emasculating side-effect of Rainbow culture, but in a time when some people firmly believe men can be mothers too, I guess anything goes. As with professional photography, way back then was a good time to be young, when one job could still pay all the bills for so many, and reality, sexual included, wasn’t a matter of politics. Oh well, that’s another generation’s battle: I’m past caring. Somebody can tell me that the Earth is flat, and if I could climb it, I’d shout agreement with them from the summit of Everest. Maybe, on a clear day, you can see the edges from there.
