Back in the early nineteen fifties, the voters elected an Army General as the country's President, Dwight David Eisenhower. This was a great decade (except for the leadership). Everyone was working: husbands and wives -- that was not a good thing but whatever. World War II had produced inventions that would change the world. Refrigeration on a massive scale permitted refrigerating homes -- now we call it air conditioning except in places that have swamp coolers. Plastic was invented and we got Hula Hoops, Barbie dolls, and, eventually, Saturn cars. TV was invented and we got Howdy Doody, I Dream of Jeannie, and CNN.
Here is the rub. Everyone is working and making things and buying things -- it is a decade of conspicuous consumption and greed. If you are into chrome-legged, Formica tables with matching vinyl-covered chairs, you are doing real well: cars designed to last 3 years and covered with chrome. In other words, if you are into crass, vulgar materialism, this is your decade. The USA becomes the visible world leader. The United Nations is created. The Japanese buy Hawaii instead of invading it by force. The Eisenhower Military-Industrial complex is in control. Eisenhower actually sells the Interstate system to Congress and the people as a military necessity -- bankrupt mass transit and the railroads in the name of protecting the country from the next war.
Into the 50's, trains are the primary mode of transporting goods and people across the country. Diesel engines replace steam. We learned to make big diesels during the war.
As a side issue, we really piss off Central America. We sent a klutz of a Vice President down to Panama to get tomatoed because of a belligerent attitude. We did not learn much from the incident since that guy became president 20 years later.
Focus. I could buy into our current oil situation if it were a
natural evolution by normal growth. But here is the skinny on the
Eisenhower conspiracy. I first
heard it in the movie "Conspiracy Theory" with Julia Roberts and the
guy from the Lethal Weapon movies. I started looking at the
history: it was not hard to find. The presidents of
Firestone, Ford, and Standard Oil, along with Eisenhower laid out a
plan to eliminate the railroads and mass transit. They were
successful: buses replaced streetcars. Trains were replaced
by concrete spans across the country: the Eisenhower Interstate Highway
System. Some states still have signs with five stars in a circle
proudly telling everyone that this highway is part of
this economic disaster.
I really do not like conspiracies much. I have read in several
places the meeting with EIsenhower of the above leaders. I would
like it to be true. Last month I met a real conspiracy
buff. He claimed that the same people met but that the mass
funding went to Greyhound so it could build buses to run on these new
concrete ribbons with the primary purpose of bankrupting our
railroads. I can believe that they got together to promote cars
and trucks traveling freely across the country, mis-directed but not
malicious. Funneling money to Greyhound? Weird.
Eisenhower and crew were unbelievably successful. I mean, the Los Angeles Red Car disappeared (Roger Rabbit has that part right) as well as ALL other streetcars. Detroit pushes the lowest quality cars imaginable on the general public using steel, gasoline, and rubber as if there were an unending supply of materials and money. I mean those automobiles were beautiful then and now (as classics). I really liked the sound of the 426 hem. It drank a quart of oil every 1000 miles.
Congress would not approve funding for the highway system so Eisenhower built it with Department of Defense funds.
The consequences? We generated a consumption-oriented, mobile lifestyle. The guy with the patent on Portland cement made out like a bandit. GM, Ford, Chrysler, et al did too. The unions made sure that the workers shared the wealth (I did not like unions). The concept that we were making junk, pretty junk, but junk none the less, at increasing prices made sure that the value system that made the USA great were left behind: depression ethics took a back seat to Detroit greed.
It was not all bad. They screwed up progress in the military sector so badly that the primary space players were a 4-way race of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union won. The result of this was tremendous funding of our public schools to produce mathematicians, scientists, and engineers. Thousands of engineers. This was good even if we do remember the series of missiles that broke in half on the launch pad.
The Saudis and others took over the USA-built oil wells that were draining their country. Exxon, Shell, et al complained bitterly that the profits were out of their hands -- they survived because there was demand enough for all.
Remember that the working class, professional or auto, were the sons and daughters of people who lived through the great depression. The youth of the 50's had the work ethic tattooed on their brains. Work harder, make more money, and protect your family, buy more things so that others could work, send your kids to college. Oops. This has a down side in the 60's. We start another war. Spend a lot of money. Go into national debt. The kids going to school realize there is more to life than chrome-legged tables and illegal wars and inflation. First the Beats and the Hippies, followed by the protests.
The 60's kids buy so much wooden furniture that the walnut trees are used up. They start on the oak trees. They scream that the military-war machine is killing them and protest this illegal war. Don't get me wrong, that is a long story and the ultimate result of that story is that the Soviet Union went bankrupt and stopped being a threat to free enterprise. But it was not a legal war -- it let us know how insidious our government can be.
The trains go broke. Passenger trains get nationalized in sort of a federal guilt trip or maybe they are afraid of total loss. Airplanes and airports have taken over the passenger business so thoroughly that the buses go broke even on the government (tax) paid highways. The freights have such a tough time that they consolidate. I remember all of the letters: L&N; A,T,&SF; B&O; C&NW. The names: Great Northern, Seaboard, and Milwaukee Road. All gone. There are about 10 major lines left and none doing real well. Boxcars have been replaced with flat beds carrying container boxes that get a set of wheels and become trucks. Good move. Efficient. But not enough. The tracks are in rough shape: not good enough to carry passengers.
What about the rest of the world? Europe is covered with train tracks. Passenger trains everywhere. Freights everywhere. Much better. More compact cities. Roads that still meander through the countryside. Sure there is the Autobahn and similar but they did not buy into the over-consumption conspiracy making it their only choice.
The bequest of the chrome generation is a generation of kids who have better standards of quality. A new generation of people who are quality-loyal rather than brand-loyal. I buy a Toyota because it works. I stopped buying Chryslers because of the hours, aggravation, and money lost at dealerships trying to get my cars fixed.
After the 60's, I also never trust a cop behind me nor anyone who got his job as a result of the ballot box.
The real problem is that our whole system is based upon a fallacy: the raw materials that got us here are unlimited. Oil is not unlimited -- and we get most of it from other countries. This is precisely the problem with the Eisenhower Conspiracy. We want large homes on large lots with roads going everywhere such that we cannot only go wherever we want but we can get there rapidly. Eisenhower was so successful that the ribbons of concrete become 5 lanes wide and cannot handle the people who want to drive 15 miles each way every day. I can get anywhere but see nothing but dotted lines to the horizon.
With few exceptions, mass transit is not working. The government claim is that people are in love with their cars. I disagree. We have not made serious attempts to implement mass transit. I xould give a few examples. We bought the Eisenhower plan and the government refuses to let go of it.