S6:E27 Boardroom Jacobins
Ralph Nader and the Chevy Corvair Spark the Consumer Protection Movement
In November of 1965, a young lawyer published a book called Unsafe at Any Speed about the dangers of driving a Chevy Corvair. The car could become unstable and possibly flip if driven in poor conditions or without proper training. The lawyer? Ralph Nader.
It took a while for the book to find its audience, but soon it was on bookshelves across the US and made a celebrity our of Nader. Soon he and his “Nader’s Raiders” were on a spree, advocating for consumer safety.
Big Business Kills the Liberal Consensus
This movement was met with skepticism and fear in the industrial community. Who did this guy think he was? Americans didn’t need “big government” looking over their shoulders! Well, that’s what big corporate leaders thought. They set out to dismantle the consumer safety movement and to convince conservative religious people that safety was actually creeping government interference.
My special guest for this episode is Rick Perlstein, author of The Invisible Bridge and Reaganland.
Sources:
- Chevy Corvair ad
- Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
- Road and Track article about the Corvair
- Washington Post article about the UAW strike
- One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse
- Article with fun pictures from the Ad Council campaigns
- Christian Reconstruction by Michael McVicar
- Reagan’s “I’m From the Government and I’m Here to Help”
- Listen, America! by Jerry Falwell p73, paperback, Bantam edition, August 1980
Discussion Questions:
- What do you think about the government involvement in the Chevy Corvair?
- How has product safety impacted your life?
- Is the government small, big, or somewhere in between?
- Do you remember Ralph Nader?
- Is it okay for big business to use advertising to change American minds about the government and economics?
