As World Car-Free Day, Sept. 22 may be the most politically correct day on the calendar. That is why it likely isn’t coincidental that the British Medical Journal chose this week to make public a study that found being exposed to auto pollution increases an individual’s risk of having a heart attack within one to six hours by approximately 1.5 percent. Despite the tiny increment of purported risk, expect to see uncritical references to the study in coverage of World Car-Free Day throughout the liberal precincts of the mainstream media where anti-automobile studies are nearly as popular as automobile ads. But fair-minded people with a knowledge of history understand that we should be exceedingly thankful for the automobile and its crucial role in the economic, social and political progress achieved since Henry Ford put America on wheels in 1908 with the Model T. Note that average life expectancy in America that year for men was 49.5 years and 52.8 years for women. Today, the overall average life expectancy in America is 78.37 years, a 58 percent improvement for men and a 48 percent gain for women. So much for the killer exhaust fumes.
Most Americans in Ford’s day lived on farms and made their living through physical exertion. They also lived relatively isolated lives because they were separated by distances that could only be traversed using horses or walking. That meant their access to medical care, education, employment opportunities, and recreation was extremely limited. By pricing the Model T to make it affordable for the vast majority of Americans, and paying his employees wages that enabled them to buy what they built, Ford revolutionized American life for the better in virtually every way. It is no exaggeration to say Ford’s Model T freed rural America from its isolation and thereby ushered America into an era of previously unthinkable opportunity.
