Cause and Effect Essay on the Role of Car in Society

The 20th century was the century of many changes: in the picture of the world, in the lifestyle, in the structure of society. A lot of forecasts made in its beginning turned out to be ridiculously wrong and even more things that hadn’t been expected by anyone happened. One of the changes that are particularly characteristic of the 20th century, the one that turned into a kind of symbol in its own right is the appearance of an automobile.

In the end of the 19th century some statisticians made a forecast based on viable scientific data, that, if the transport industry would be developing with the same speed it did, then by the middle of the 20th century the streets of big cities will be covered with a layer of horse manure one meter thick – it is a good example of usefulness of forecasts.

When Ford’s mass production line came into place, horse carriages very quickly became artifacts of the past; it was a car that defined the development of the society from then on. It became a symbol of independence, of coming of age of both the person and civilization; it made a person independent from both the state’s systems of transportation and the services of other people. Once you have a car, you are your own master, able to go wherever you like. 20th century, the age of individual effort, received the symbol it deserved.

And, as we can see, its importance is no less than it was then, although the Ford’s ideals of cars available for everybody are no longer topical.