Bail out the buggy business

   Exactly 100 years ago, with carriage sales declining, my great grandfather in Racine was forced to retire and sell his buggy business to some guy named John Deere.  We’re not sure what John did with it, but my family has been bitter ever since that the government failed to bail out the buggy business. As we all know, carriage manufacturers all went overseas and today few Americans own a domestically built buggy. But it’s not too late.

 

   Here in Wisconsin the horse and buggy is statistically the fastest growing transportation in the state (the Amish population has doubled).  In New York, carriage rides around Central Park this month will be up double digits over November, and while critics say it is just a holiday season blip, this is just fantasy talk.  And millions more Americans will enviously eye a carriage every evening watching the TCM classic movie channel.  The data and facts present an air-tight case to Congress.

 

   The bail out of the horseless carriage business, however, is futile.  Car sales have declined in the first decade of this century even more than carriage sales declined in the first decade of the last. 

      At the same time train ridership is at a 50 year high. The Wall Street Journal reported that the nation’s electorate  approved 23  mass transit projects in November totaling $75 billion in funding.

 

   Last Christmas our 22 year old son Willie came home and told us he couldn’t get a ride anywhere because none of his friends had a car.  So my wife and I made the ultimate sacrifice and offered to give him our second car.  “No thanks Dad,” he replied, “If I can’t get there on public transportation, I don’t need to get there at all.”   This year I’m going to offer him a buggy. 

 

 

Comments

[Susie Catalina]

Why do we have to have new cars every year?
If the cars are made properly, a new car should be offered every 5 to 10 years.
I am a die hard, I still drive a 1999 Tahoe and I love it.
My husband has tried to buy me a new Tahoe but they are not as roomy and they don't offer the cargo doors that my 99' model has.
It is the "Keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome... who are the Joneses anyway?