Scenes witnessed in recent days have re-enforced to me that ours is an economic world turned upside down as evidenced by what we’ll call the ratty car indicator.
Growing up in the 1960s, a stretch of time when I went from age 5 to 15, poor folk drove ratty cars – my family included. We shouldn’t have been poor – my dad worked steadily – but he always managed to spend more than he made, and on wasteful items.
And so it was common to see us motoring down the highway in some decrepit Ford Falcon, its bodywork heavily patched with aluminum panels that had been pop-riveted to whatever steel had not yet succumbed to rust.
Sometimes the old man had a truck, too, but they also were low-buck heaps held together with whatever was on hand, like wire coat hangers. Although zip ties were invented in 1958, they had yet to hit the public marketplace in as large numbers as the present.
If we’d have found ourselves lined up to get free food, a common occurrence these days in the USA but not an option for us back then, we’d have looked the part in whatever crumbling vehicle we drove to the distribution point.
But a few days back I saw yet again a line of vehicles at a food handout and there was nary a ratty ride among them. Instead, there mostly were high end, late model SUVs, pickup trucks, and other vehicles looking pristine and upscale.
This very point was addressed in a national story I saw recently, in which several people interviewed pointed out that lest onlookers judge them due to their rides, the truth was that a main reason they needed the free food was they had spent so much on their cars. To me, that sort of makes my point in Catch-22 fashion.
Completing my weekend, I went to a car show and a cruise at separate sites Sunday. At both of those there was an ample supply of cars gleaming like they were just out of the showroom, even though they might be 20, 30, 40 years old or older.
There were ratty cars, too, but mostly they were ratty by design.
A trend among hot rodders is to keep the rust, use mismatched, worn-out looking parts, and call it a rat rod.
Classic cars also have a branch that embraces what is called patina; what we’d have called faded, bad paint and rust. This often is preserved under a clear-coat layer of paint. If there is not enough natural patina, some can be added via rust-like paint, or even plastic wraps for the entire car designed to mimic natural patina.
These latter-day ratty vehicles can be expensive, somewhat ironic considering the look used to be the calling card of the people too short on funds to have a nice car. Now people pay extra for that look, sort of like the current trend to buy clothes with rips and tears already in them, at a higher cost of course.
It’s not just events from recent days that make the point of economic bastardization as measured by the ratty vehicle indicator. A Section 8 apartment complex near my home has the odd ratty car amidst a sea of late model vehicles in good to excellent condition, at least cosmetically. With the government paying the rent, that leaves more to spend on the car.
But is this right? Should people not working be driving better vehicles than many working people?
The point is moot for now. As long as the governmental agencies can keep doling out benefits, this can continue. But if and when it ends badly, as many economists have predicted, due to the federal government running out of borrowing runway, the system collapses dramatically.
You will recognize this when ratty cars become prevalent on the roads, and not merely as styling statements.
Sam Ross Jr's site 