Reply #68: Pretty funny thread, NSMA.

[Old and In the Way]

I've read all the responses....and, darn, but there isn't one significant accomplishment that any of his fans can enlighten us with.

And, very interesting tidbit I learned here from 5thGenDemocrat about Nader taking credit for the Corvair structural problems when it was a former GM exec....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=383525#384307

"Ralph Nader was paid UP FRONT to write "Unsafe at Any Speed"

Edited on Wed Feb-25-04 02:16 PM by 5thGenDemocrat
Saint Ralph was nothing more than a mercenary paid $2000 in advance by publisher Robert Grossman to hack out a hatchet job "exposing" the automakers' lack of concern for safety. The book wasn't even Nader's idea, originally.
Nader also wasn't responsible for the redesign of the Corvair's rear axle (a flaw which was real and did lead to people being killed and maimed). Chevrolet Division Manager Bunkie Knudsen was.
Knudsen's niece was maimed in a Corvair accident (Cadillac Division Manager Cal Werner's son was killed in one) and Knudsen threatened to resign from GM and take the matter public if the corrections weren't made (at a cost of $15 per unit, BTW).
These corrections HAD BEEN MADE before Unsafe even hit the bookstores. The Corvairs then on the lots were perfectly safe, reliable and economical. But GM couldn't sell them in the wake of Saint Ralph's screed and a lot of folks here in my hometown lost their jobs because of it.
John
Nader was little more than a hired gun. But nobody here would ever give the real hero of the story, Knudsen, credit for standing up to GM and saving lives because he's, you know, a corporatist."

The stuff you learn here on DU. :-)