Okla-homey
2/10/2006, 07:11 AM
February 10, 1966 Consumers Awake!
On this day, 40 years ago, Ralph Nader testified before the Senate, reinforcing his earlier claims that the automobile industry was socially irresponsible and detailing the peculiar methods the industry used in attempting to silence him.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7718/corvair0210au1ao.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nader during his 1966 Senate testimony
Nader's 1965 book, Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, had become a sensation a year earlier. Nader attacked the automotive industry's unwillingness to consider the safety of the consumer, or as Nader himself put it, "insisting on maintaining the freedom to rank safety wherever it pleases on its list of considerations."
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4040/corvairunsafef8mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nader's heaviest criticism was leveled at the Chevrolet Corvair, a car that had been involved in a high number of one-car accidents. General Motors (GM) responded to Nader's criticism by launching an investigation into his personal life and accusing Nader of being gay and anti-Semitic.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9505/corvairuntitled8yb.png (http://imageshack.us)
Chevy Corvair. This GM rear-engine rolling catastrophe really was a death-trap.
Nader filed a defamation lawsuit suit against GM, and ultimately exacted a $425,000 settlement from the automotive giant. By bringing the public's right to safe automobiles into the spotlight, and by directly challenging General Motors in court, Nader created the methodology for contemporary consumer advocacy.
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which in 1966 mandated seatbelts, owed its existence to Nader's initiative, as do the other federally regulated safety standards which are common practice today.
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/1332/corvairnaderralph1ty.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Unfortunately, like many old lib warhorses, he's kinda loopy these days and has run for president as a "spoiler" on the Green Party ticket a couple times, drawing the kook vote from Democrat candidates -- similar to the way kook right Ross Perot did when he ran against Bush 41 during Bush's re-election campaign in which Bush lost to Clinton.
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/5961/corvairnadersolar9mb.gif (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg
On this day, 40 years ago, Ralph Nader testified before the Senate, reinforcing his earlier claims that the automobile industry was socially irresponsible and detailing the peculiar methods the industry used in attempting to silence him.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7718/corvair0210au1ao.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nader during his 1966 Senate testimony
Nader's 1965 book, Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, had become a sensation a year earlier. Nader attacked the automotive industry's unwillingness to consider the safety of the consumer, or as Nader himself put it, "insisting on maintaining the freedom to rank safety wherever it pleases on its list of considerations."
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4040/corvairunsafef8mq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Nader's heaviest criticism was leveled at the Chevrolet Corvair, a car that had been involved in a high number of one-car accidents. General Motors (GM) responded to Nader's criticism by launching an investigation into his personal life and accusing Nader of being gay and anti-Semitic.
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/9505/corvairuntitled8yb.png (http://imageshack.us)
Chevy Corvair. This GM rear-engine rolling catastrophe really was a death-trap.
Nader filed a defamation lawsuit suit against GM, and ultimately exacted a $425,000 settlement from the automotive giant. By bringing the public's right to safe automobiles into the spotlight, and by directly challenging General Motors in court, Nader created the methodology for contemporary consumer advocacy.
The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which in 1966 mandated seatbelts, owed its existence to Nader's initiative, as do the other federally regulated safety standards which are common practice today.
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/1332/corvairnaderralph1ty.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Unfortunately, like many old lib warhorses, he's kinda loopy these days and has run for president as a "spoiler" on the Green Party ticket a couple times, drawing the kook vote from Democrat candidates -- similar to the way kook right Ross Perot did when he ran against Bush 41 during Bush's re-election campaign in which Bush lost to Clinton.
http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/5961/corvairnadersolar9mb.gif (http://imageshack.us)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1206/insane7zo2es.jpg