Earlier quoted context omitted.
Were that the case, we'd see a prevalence of people unable to afford cars. This is not the case. The cost of an automobile is an even smaller fraction of an average person's disposable income than it was during Henry Ford's day. And this isn't considering the fact that a modern car is far safer, more comfortable, more fuel efficient, and just broadly way better than a model T. American workers are too highly paid to…
> Were that the case, we'd see a prevalence of people unable to afford cars. Actually, I'd say that is precisely the case. The vast majority of cars in the US are bought on credit, which means people can't actually afford a car, they can only afford to borrow money to pay for a car for a few years, then get out of that one and move onto another one. The massive, massive majority of vehicles are not owned by the perso…
The price of a model T in 1908 was $825 or $850 (google results vary). The median annual income was between $450 and $525 (again, sources vary). So a Model T cost 1.6 to 1.7 times the median income of a US worker. For a car that had no air conditioning, no radio, no airbags, and a top speed of 45 mph. Near the end of the production run (mid-late 20s) the cost of the model T had gone down by over half - thanks to production line manufacturing.
This site provides a breakdown for the cost as a fraction of median annual income of Chevys over the course of the 20th century: https://cars.lovetoknow.com/Car_Ownership_Statistics
By comparison, the current US median income is just over $60k. You can buy many of these cars for less than half of that. Some less than a third: https://www.truecar.com/prices-new/kia/ Each of these cars is drastically safer, more comfortable, and with amenities like aircon radios and more.