When Henry Ford was envisioning the Model T, he said:.“I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.”.When the Model T was released in 1908, it changed the world..Personal automobiles were no longer a novelty or luxury for the wealthy. Middle-income families now could travel independently of public transit, trains or by horse and wagon..Workers who had been confined to employment options within walking distance or transit if it was available could now seek employment elsewhere should they choose to. Commuters had more options than ever..Consumers were empowered as well. Families with personal automobiles could now comparison shop with more distant retailers. Local businesses, including the old “company store” no longer could hold a small consumer base captive and they had to compete to earn the business of consumers they had previously taken for granted..Rural citizens could reach neighboring communities for consumer goods or supplemental employment if need be..Travelling salesmen broadened their ranges and the earliest incarnation of Amazon Prime was created as home delivery of goods expanded..Inter-city or even interstate migration became a reality for people who felt trapped in their prior residences. People could move to where the work was in ways they never imagined only a few years prior..Unions will never like to admit it, but the personal automobile did as much or more to empower workers than their labour organizations ever had. While the right to strike held employers accountable, the ability to find work elsewhere did the same..Socially, people’s worlds expanded as they were able to easily visit with friends and family members regularly, even if they were miles away..Horizons for people were broadened as the road trip was created. Families travelled across the nation and highways like Route 66 became legendary. A whole new cottage industry of motels and restaurants blossomed throughout North America..The personal automobile empowers the individual and authoritarians now want to take that empowerment away..Statists with a twisted vision of utopia got a taste of the world they want to see during the lockdowns of the last few years and they want more of it. Mobility disappeared while dependence on the state increased. Tourism evaporated while social structures fell apart..The other thing authoritarians noted was how the personal automobile can facilitate citizen actions and protests. The Freedom Convoy and other associated protests could never have happened if people didn’t have personal transportation. This will not do!.Those who want to end individualism for a socialized state also discovered just how docile and pliable most citizens can be if they're convinced of a public emergency..Putting all that together, authoritarian collectivists realize more than ever they won’t be able to achieve their envisioned utopia as long as individuals retain personal automobiles (or speech or firearms, but that's fodder for another column.).The public emergency they're currently pushing is ostensibly climate change and the latest tool they plan to use is the 15-minute City. The 15-minute City goes by many other names, but the policies are always the same. Auto owners are punished through taxes while auto infrastructure is constantly removed. Bike lanes are created in zones without bicycle demand with the intention of snarling automotive traffic. New high density developments are being designed without parking while charges for parking on the streets in front of a person’s own home are being imposed..In cities such as Oxford in the UK, they're imposing a program where a person will be fined if their vehicle enters the wrong zone or leaves its own zone too many times. Permits will be issued by the state if an auto owner wants to travel to certain areas..People keep fleeing further from city centres while municipal politicians expand metro-regional plans to try and enforce density limits outside city limits. It's a cat-and-mouse game between free individuals and authoritarian administrators. The authoritarians want to remove citizen's ability to choose to flee jurisdictions. .The war is on and while free individuals will be the ultimate victims, the target is the personal automobile that empowers them..Citizens need to realize just how much they stand to lose if they no longer have the freedom to travel at will. They must start paying attention to local politics and start firing the mayors and councils pursuing the war on cars..It is a subtle and incremental war, but a war nonetheless..It's a war that authoritarians are winning, but it can still be turned around.
