Originally Posted by
kickstart
If you can, try finding books on the subject written when the automobile was just starting to become common. Before the affordable automobile, most people rarely traveled more than 20 miles from their home, and a large portion of the working class lived in abject poverty because their employment opportunities were limited to whatever was available within walking distance. The automobile more than anything else improved the standard of living for the working class by allowing them to travel between where they could find affordable quality housing and employment that matched their skills with decent pay.
We need to look forward not back, the good-ol-days weren't so good for most people, and its over population not their tools that are the issue. The harsh truth is we need to curtail our lifestyles to compensate for irresponsible breeding habits.
I think that exaggerates the role played by the automobile. I would (for example) give unionization a lot of credit for businesses paying living wages for what otherwise would have been low paying jobs. People rarely traveled more than 20 miles from their home because stores, schools, bars, restaurants, banks, churches, etc were located near where people lived. If the town you lived in didn't have opportunities, you found a job in a community that did and you moved there. People kept jobs for decades. Laying workers off was a last resort and a sign of trouble, - not a sign of healthy corporate restructuring.
Besides, it's not like people went from walking to driving cars. There were horses, mules, carriages, trains, street cars, trolleys, etc. Oh, and bikes.