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Show WHAT D'YA MEAN "THE GOOD OLD DAYS"? By Marguerite Mkkelsen If you think prices are too high these days if you look back fondly to the "good old days" of the 50-cent steak and the five-cent beer try an experiment. Next time you're in your local library, ask for a file of newspapers and magazines of 40 years ago, and take a look at some of the ads. Yes, there they are all the good old low prices. But there's one that may shock you. Look at the prices of those odd-looking automobiles. auto-mobiles. See how they range from $5,000 to $6,000 even $7,000 and more in some cases! There's one price that's come down. Cars used to cost many times more than they do now, in those days when the average man's income was far less than it is now. And they were not' nearly so good as today's cars. Automobile prices went down steeply, hitting their low points in j the depression years, of course, after a long period of phenomenal expansion. But even today, considering your income, they're a lot cheaper than they were in those "good old days". Fact is, the car itself today costs less than you think. Taxes, Federal, state and local account for about 29 of what you pay for that 1952 model. There's another point to note in those old days, too. That was a tough world for the man who could get together the price of an automobile. auto-mobile. Even if he could afford it, he had to go and bring it home himself, or have it precariously shipped and get it running himself, without help from anybody but the local livery-stable man who had dubiously started selling these new competitors of the horse. If anything went wrong, he could try to fix it himself, ordering custom-built new parts from a distant manufacturer, or rely on the local blacksmith. The livery stable man was a good hand with a feed bag, but somewhat less helpful with a balky carburetor. Why have times changed so much? Economists explain the' price-drop price-drop very simply. It's a matter of mass production, for one thing the American methods of the assembly line, which turn out jewel-perfect products as fast as rabbits. But equally important, or more important, is efficient distribution on a nation-wide scale, through new car dealers. It's a far cry from the livery stable man to your neighborly new car dealer today. He's the important man at your end of the miraculous miracu-lous economic chain of events that has reduced prices so startingly in a half century. Today, the man who sells you that new car maintains a staff of skilled service men, trained by the men who built your car in the first place, to keep it in shape. Manufacturers operate training schools for these mechanics, so that they know the cars they sell better than the old timer knew the horses he stabled and rented out to the young bucks with Sunday afternoon ideas. That's, a by-product of the mass methods that have put American families on wheels but it's a by-product just as important as the price drop. It may be small comfort to moderns who wince at the price of steak, but it's worth remembering, next time you stop to look at the 1952 models through the windows of your new car dealer's showroom. One price, at least, is lower than it was 40 years ago. |