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This is a conspiracy theory. The other part of the story is that if the streetcars were a better investment, General Motors would not have done this. Streetcars

by Agustus 10y ago

This is a conspiracy theory. The other part of the story is that if the streetcars were a better investment, General Motors would not have done this. Streetcars are slow, inefficient, and require rail lines to move about. So, if these companies realized the assets they were holding, then they have the opportunity to get rid of them. If you were an investor, the up and coming item was streetcars, as the article mentions they were better than horse-drawn carriages, so taking a stake in these would have been a good idea. The article mentions that the transit systems are expensive to maintain; as publicly held companies, they need to make money. The current day transit systems with rail lines are heavily underwater and have a difficult time making any money, let alone addressing maintenance issues: BART, Metro, and Max. Knowing the return on investment from existing data, would you as a private investor purchase any of those lines. So, the conspiracy can be developed in retrospect, but an over arching plot fails to account for some of the opportunities that fit more into an investor trying to make monies.

mountaineer22 10y ago
It is not a theory. It is an actual conspiracy. From the link: "On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were indicted in the Federal District Court of Southern California on counts of "conspiring to acquire control of a number of transit companies, forming a transportation monopoly" and "conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines"[35] which had been made illegal by the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1948, the venue was changed from the Federal District Court of Southern California to the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois following an appeal to the United States Supreme Court (in United States v. National City Lines Inc.)[36] which felt that there was evidence of conspiracy to monopolize the supply of buses and supplies.[37] In 1949, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, GM and Mack Trucks were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by NCL; they were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951." Then you have President Eisenhower appointing the president of GM as the secretary of defense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson#Secretary_of_Defense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson#Secretary... ..and Francis DuPont appointed as chief administrator of highways, whose family, coincidentally owned the largest share of GM stock: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/administrators/fdupont.cfm https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/administrators/fdupont.cfm

by Agustus 10y ago

mountaineer22 10y ago

It is not a theory. It is an actual conspiracy. From the link: "On April 9, 1947, nine corporations and seven individuals (officers and directors of certain of the corporate defendants) were indicted in the Federal District Court of Southern California on counts of "conspiring to acquire control of a number of transit companies, forming a transportation monopoly" and "conspiring to monopolize sales of buses and supplies to companies owned by National City Lines"[35] which had been made illegal by the 1890 Sherman Antitrust Act. In 1948, the venue was changed from the Federal District Court of Southern California to the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois following an appeal to the United States Supreme Court (in United States v. National City Lines Inc.)[36] which felt that there was evidence of conspiracy to monopolize the supply of buses and supplies.[37] In 1949, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California, Phillips Petroleum, GM and Mack Trucks were convicted of conspiring to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to local transit companies controlled by NCL; they were acquitted of conspiring to monopolize the ownership of these companies. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951." Then you have President Eisenhower appointing the president of GM as the secretary of defense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson#Secretary_of_Defense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Erwin_Wilson#Secretary... ..and Francis DuPont appointed as chief administrator of highways, whose family, coincidentally owned the largest share of GM stock: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/administrators/fdupont.cfm https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/administrators/fdupont.cfm