Crusader for Consumer Rights

Who would have thought a book about the automobile industry would permanently change the American economy by leading to the birth of the consumer movement? And yet that is exactly what followed the publication of Unsafe At An\ Speed. Written by Ralph Nader, the book accused General Motors and the automobile industry as a whole of emphasizing styling over safety.

Although the book was well written, it probably would have gone unnoticed were it not for the efforts made by General Motors to discredit its author. When it was learned that the giani General Motors Corporation had hired private detec­tives to investigate a lone crusader because he had faulted one of their products, public sympathy and support rallied around the underdog. Public outrage was also exactly what Congress needed to overcome the objections of the automo­bile industry to a bill it had been considering for some time. The Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 sought to improve traffic safety and protect consumers.

Support for Ralph Nader continued to grow during the 70’s. An honors graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Nader had rejected the comfortable life that a private law career could have given him. At the time that he wrote Unsafe At Any Speed, he was working for a Senate committee studying traffic safety. The public also learned that Nader lived alone in a one-room Washington apartment, owned no car, and somehow managed to live on $5,000 a year. The image of this modern David challenging and defeating a powerful industrial Goliath further added to his fame and popularity.

In ddition to the public contributions he began to receive, an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit he brought against General Motors netted Nader $284,000. This money allowed him to expand his work on behalf of consumer causes and to establish a number of organizations to work for his goals. He was instrumental in the enactment of the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 as well as a number of other laws designed to protect workers in the natural gas and coal mining industries.

Ralph Nader’s image and popularity declined during the 1980s. He was unable to get Congress to create the Consumer Protection Agency or to require the installation of air bag restraints in new automobiles. By 1980 Congress was more concerned with finding ways to save America's automobile industry from foreign competition than it was with reforming it. Despite the shifting attitudes, however, as the 1980’s drew to a close, it was evident that Ralph Nader continued to be an effective consumer advocate. One sign of this came with the 1989 announcement that American auto manufacturers were going to offer air bags in 1990 models.