Lala Land

Ever wonder how the average person could afford an automobile in the twentieth-century? Cars were usually built for the rich to enjoy a luxurious life without walking. Automobiles were rare to see on the street, and allowed people to experience the American Dream , cars being cheaper led to a revolutionized era. When cars had first came out they were relatively expensive due to the way they were being manufactured. Eventually a man named Henry Ford who was “always looking for ways to reduce costs and make his cars more available to more people”(TAB 2). Cars in that time were too expensive to be purchased by the common man. Usually, only rich people could afford cars, and Henry Ford became aware of this. He was constantly trying to find ways to manufacture his cars to make them cheaper and increase production rate. Prior to building the Model-T, Henry Ford met a man named “J Kent Smith who showed [Henry Ford] a new kind of steel. Vanadium steel was three times stronger than normal steel. It was lighter and easier to cut and shape. It also made cars less likely to rust” (TAB 2). Along with the finding of Vanadium steel Henry Ford had created interchangeable parts and the assembly line. This made it so within the assembly line, “instead of a single worker producing a car from beginning to end, each worker would be trained to perform a single task in the process” (TAB 8) This led cars to be cheaper than ever and the price dropped from “ 490 [dollars to]... only 310 [dollars]” in 1921 which allowed the average person to purchase an automobile even though “[three] out of [four] cars were bought on installment plans” (TAB 10). Seeing more cars on the street also impacted the way of life for many Americans and started what could be considered new lives..
As cars became more affordable and many were being mass produced due to Henry Ford's assembly line, the American Dream of driving a vehicle and viewing the world was achieved. Due to the car being faster than a man