It is hard to overestimate the impact of the car on American life at the beginning of the 20th century. John Steinbeck once wrote, perhaps hyperbolically, that “Most of the babies of the period were conceived in Model T Fords and not a few were born in them.” 

There is always something that is credited with marking a shifting point from one generation to the next. Vehicles. Music. Technology. And generally speaking, whatever it is tends to rankle the generation that came before. Boomers thought Gen Xers were lazy and cynical. Gen Xers thought millennials were entitled brats. Millennials think Gen Zers are TikTok slacktivists. Gen Z will surely find something to complain about in 20 years’ time. 

And this is not a trend specific to the modern era. In around 470 B.C., Socrates wro...