By the time Ralph Nader was killing the Corvair, the design flaws had been
addressed. The Corvair was really a decent car. My high school english teacher
had one of the sport models. (I think he still has it!) That car really had some
get-gone!

Grant



Charlie Self wrote:

rcook5 resonds:


This is the part I find so interesting, not the relatively mundane
statistical details. It is interesting for the light it throws on
these people and their thinking. As a philosophical matter it says
some pretty ugly things about the way these people think and perhaps
what their real motives are. As a practical matter it gives us
guidance on how much credence to place on their continuing campaigns
for laws to make us 'safer.'

I've always felt that, as an example, Ralph Nader had some psychological
problem that made him want to fix my--and your--life. Back when I was much
younger and he was killing the Corvair, a big thing was made by the press that
he was sacrificing a lot to do in a car that he felt--wrongly, IMO--was more
dangerous than the norm. IIRC, he was drawing only $100 a week in salary, etc.
This was in the mid-'60s when such a salary was a living wage, if only barely
(minimum wage at the time, I seem to recall, was around $1.25 or $1.50). He
also didn't have a wife or girlfriend, no family life, was a workaholic, all
seemingly admirable qualities to too many journalists of the time because he
was taking on GM...and winning.

I never have been able to determine if the guy was a power freak or had some
other head problem, but he has been a bug on the windshield of U.S. life for
decades now, obscuring vision and screwing up elections.

I wonder if he has upped his draw from 100 bucks a week.

Charlie Self
"It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable." Eric
Hoffer