It is hard to accept this as enthusiasts of military vehicles, but there
are some points to be made.
Competing with surplus sellers, how could Detroit have made out trying to
compete with vehicles which were made well, and were in many cases unused?
They would have been plundered as public held companies. The only way to
illustrate is to imagine that tomorrow someone discovers a stash of 100,000
1969 Ford Mustangs, and dumps them on the market for $3000.00 apiece.
Think Detroit would suffer? I think so. They had to get rid of all that
stuff, or the economy would have suffered terribly. There already was a
recession from 1946 to 1948 or so. It would have been worse.
Same with aviation. All the mom and pop aviation companies went out of
business after WWII- Franklin, Jacobs, et al. The big ones had trouble,
too. I think Lockheed or one of the other big ones had to be bailed out by
the Government in the 1950's. Turning loose more airplanes would have made
it worse.
Now, look at the armed services. The US had one of the most advanced
armies in the world at that moment. Anything they needed, or wanted, with
new jet-age stuff on the way. Why pay to bring outmoded, antiquated
equipment home. Why not just sell it for scrap...which is what they did?
Beyond that, why give away US military R&D to other countries for nothing
or pennies on the dollar- let them buy it new from US manufacturers at
retail prices.
I know this subject always comes up with appropriate groans of "If only I'd
been there...If only my dad had known"(my friend's father turned down a P51
mustang for $1000.00 UGGGH).
But I also think that there is enough collective MV intellect out there to
explore this historical phenomenon with more sleuthing into the real
reasons it happened.
john@astory.com
http://www.astory.com
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