Alabama's Economy Lifted by Auto Industry

[tpfkaw]

You also don't need as many people to make cars as you used to with the automated factories.

Not to mention car sales are a fraction of what they once were.  Far more cars were sold in the 1970s and even in the 1980s with a much smaller population.  Lets face it, people are very poor now, only a tiny minority of them can afford new cars.

In the 1970s, there were still quite a few people purchasing the first car they had ever owned (or their first second car).  If there were many more people purchasing flush toilets in the 1950s, that doesn't mean people are no longer capable of affording flush toilets.  Likewise, if people are purchasing many more television sets today than in the 90s, that doesn't mean people were incapable of purchasing a television set back then.

[tpfkaw]

In the 1970s, there were still quite a few people purchasing the first car they had ever owned (or their first second car). 

That's absolutely ridiculous, wormyguy!  Or was that a typo?  Did you think we were discussing the 1920s?

That's not ridiculous at all.  In the 1970s many people moved from cities to suburbs and bought their first car.