Why was this allowed to happen? Did public/mass transit deserve to die because the free market fixed it or did the auto corporations murder an otherwise healthy system?
Also, corporate conspiracies general, I guess.
The Great GM Streetcar Conspiracy
Hudson Harris
Other urls found in this thread:
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
evworld.com
tv.greenmedinfo.com
youtube.com
themindunleashed.org
pubs.acs.org
blacklistednews.com
foolz.fireden.net
foolz.fireden.net
en.wikipedia.org
edwinblack.com
nazinexus.com
thecuttingedgenews.com
internalcombustionbook.com
twitter.com
Luis Evans
The real issue is that Americans think using tax-dollars to fund public transit is deadly socialism, and with a few exceptions, most major U.S. cities lacked the necessary legal power to fund and operate rail service until the oil crises of the 1970s made people reevaluate it.
Many electric railways died off without ever having been purchased by GM or National City Lines. That's not to say the auto industry and their lobbyists are innocent, but the issue is more complicated than what "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have you believe.
Connor Sanchez
>Why was this allowed to happen?
Because rich people did it with money.
Anthony Bell
sure the monopoly interests of GM, Ford etc and their marketing propaganda of GM and Ford would say that cars were popular... popular in media and advertisements, yes.
the majority of the population could not afford cars.
>In the early 1900s, General Motors' long-time president, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., began implementing a plan to expand auto sales and maximize profits by eliminating streetcars.
>In 1922, Sloan established a special unit within GM that was charged with, among other things, the task of replacing the United States' electric railways with cars, trucks, and buses. Consumers who no longer had the option of taking the streetcar turned first to the bus lines and, eventually, to owning and driving their own automobiles.
no public transport because car companies bribed government officials in the 40s and 50s to plan cities without public transport.
public transport was sabotaged to steer the flock towards car/oil
Oliver Hall
streetcars are dumb anyways
literally worse than buses
Hunter Ward
>In 1930 the electric streetcar ruled US
with social engineering and propoganda campaigns, GM successfully wasted billions of public tax dollars.
wasted billions of public $$ to fund their monopoly.
Austin Miller
>all these unfounded conspiracies to push an anti-capitalist narrative
>unironically citing a Steven Segal speech from a shitty movie
top lel m8, thanks for the laugh
Easton Lee
The carfag reclined in the rear of his mother’s minivan, flapping his hands and twirling his fingers. “I am John Galt” he muttered to himself repeatedly in his nasal monotone. The acne-stricken fellow was clad in a food-stained t-shirt featuring Nordic runes, and crusty cargo shorts. His long, greasy hair hung at his shoulders, and a cheap trilby sat atop his head, concealing his burgeoning bald-spot.
For nearly an hour and a half, he and his mother had been stranded in bumper-to-bumper gridlock on the so-called expressway. She had finished her third cigarette, and removed a fourth, popping it into her mouth and lighting it. It would only be another 45 minutes before they made it to their exit, 3/4 of a mile in the distance.
Continuing his incessant, repetitive mumbling, the carfag gazed out the window, just as a sleek, electric commuter train glided down the highway median, almost completely silent, save for the hypnotic clicking of the wheels, the gentle hum of the traction motors, and the occasional “crack” as an electrical arc briefly flashed where the pantograph met the overhead wire.
Kevin Russell
“2014” the carfag thought to himself in memetext “riding with feral niggers”. He began to sweat profusely with anger. “2014…” his overworked heart struggled to pump, “living like some irrelevant yuropoor shithole”. But the last straw was when he noticed the lounge car, filled with businessmen. “2014… drinking the fermented Jew!”
The carfag could take no more. He let out an ear-piercing screech as he started to violently smack himself in the side of the head. His mother turned around. “Sweetie…” she began in her tired, raspy voice, “Do you need to go in the hugbox when we get home?”
Not wanting to risk another trip to the hugbox, the carfag stopped just as traffic began to move.
“There… How about some din-dins?” his mother asked, removing a greasy bag of fast food from the empty passenger seat, “I got you chicky-fing-fings!”
She handed the bag back to the carfag. He gleefully looked in, only to be overcome with disappointment when he saw its contents.
“8 piece! I wanted 8 piece!” he bellowed.
“I know sweetie, but gas prices went up again, I could only afford the 6 piece.”
“No!” the carfag screamed, “NO!” He began to angrily kick the back of his mother’s seat. “I WANT 8 PIECE! 8 PIECE!” His kicking grew more aggressive, “CHICKY FING-FING!”
Camden Anderson
You forget the crucial fact that these streetcar lines were also private, for-profit corporations who often pushed real estate sales in suburbs that they created near their lines. They were victims of their own success, which is one reason why most Americans weren't that upset to see them go in the end. They weren't very generous when they had a monopoly on transportation and later attempts to portray themselves as victims of other evil corporations largely fell on deaf ears.
Lucas Campbell
No they don't.
We are perfectly comfortable with the government paving roads and building trains so long as they aren't ridiculously expensive or useless, but they have a tendency to be ridiculously expensive and tailored towards the uses of lobbying groups because government has no incentive to complete something under budget and the officials want to be reelected and get some nice kickbacks once they leave office.
Adam Russell
...
Ryan Bell
The trainfag stared out the window of the commuter express, watching as the scenes of highway gridlock gave way to quiet, cozy suburbs and countryside. He let out a brief sigh of relief, taking a sip of his vodka seltzer. Despite his desire to return to his loving wife and children, he did enjoy the relaxing ride home. Bob, his friend, noticed him, and took the adjacent seat, shaking his hand as he sat.
“Long day at work?” Bob asked, noticing the trainfag’s drink.
“Oh, no… Just thought I’d treat myself…” he said, taking another sip, “I’ve gone to the gym after work each day this week, this is my cheat day…”
The two of them stared out the window.
“110 miles per hour…” Bob said in amazement, “Of course, that’s nothing compared to those trains in Europe or Japan…”
“No…” the trainfag agreed, “But you know what they say… Rome wasn’t built in a day…”
And the railroad hadn’t been built in a day. In the 1950s, when the modest trolley line had gone bankrupt, the city had attempted to rip it up and turn it into an extra four lanes of highway. But despite cries of “socialism” from the automotive industry and their cronies in city hall, the more level-headed members of the government had taken the highway money and instead put it towards the founding of a transportation authority to subsidize and operate the railroad.
In response to the increased ridership when the oil crises hit two decades later, the railroad had actually been expanded, in spite of unfounded, racist fears that the new rail lines would bring a “criminal element” to the suburbs.
“Thank God for our clean, efficient public transport…” the trainfag said to Bob, taking another sip of his drink.
“I hear that…” Bob said, chuckling, “I hear that…”
Noah Garcia
Blame the NIMBY people and the conservatives that oppose all attempts and public transportation. For them, any attempt to put in transit, bike lanes, or sidewalks in some cases, is communism forced upon them. No, it's just providing alternatives so the car isn't the only way to get places.
Luke Perez
You're right, commuter rail is for the wealthy elite and cars are for the underclass in American society. Trains = elitist, cars = democratic.
Nathan Morales
If the people don't want to fund bike lanes, the people shouldn't be forced to fund bike lanes. Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they've been manipulated by le evil corporations.
Joshua Gray
anything in a profit-driven society is made with the shittiest quality and effort.
compare the clean, efficient, beautiful subway systems of Europe and Asia with the dilapidated, rat-infested, noisy NYC subway system.
SHIT is a deliberate add-on to force people away from public shit
Colton Gray
they also erased to ev
>electric car
>A century ago, society could have started down the path of electric cars. We already had regenerative braking like hybrids have now, and we could have powered our cars on a decentralized system with home electricity, swap-out batteries and plug-in stations.
youtube.com
youtube.com
>investigative history into the conspiracy to stop the electric car nearly a century ago
Samuel Cooper
dude they killed the hemp car too, that's totally bogus man! I mean, they even killed off those cars that could run on air alone, can you believe that?!
Jack Campbell
turbine free energy
themindunleashed.org
Scientists Can Now Make Lithium Ion Batteries Last a Lifetime
pubs.acs.org
Gavin Watson
>this is what Bernie supporters actually believe
Josiah Roberts
I should've clarified, Americans *thought* that using tax-dollars to fund *existing* public transit *was* deadly socialism.
The damage is done.
Connor Martinez
Oh wow, an unproven conspiracy that *maybe* a corporation sought to speed along the death of a failed transportation industry. Big deal.
Why not talk about the real communist conspiracy to take over the entire world?
Juan Gray
Oh wow, a dead conspiracy that fell with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Big deal.
Zachary Bailey
>implying the "collapse" of the Soviet Union wasn't all part of the plan
Noah Phillips
...
Nathaniel Roberts
>unproven
Most companies involved were convicted in 1949 of conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce in the sale of buses, fuel, and supplies to NCL subsidiaries
Brandon Taylor
>deliberate shit to force you into carfagging
Public transportation in North America is literally 3rd-world-tier, just like telecommunications.
I once had a bus which was literally 30 minutes late. On a bus line where the wait between each bus is supposed to be no more than 10 minutes. So basically I arrived at the stop at 6:05 (I don't remember the exact times, I'm just giving example times), I could see in the distance that I had missed the 6:00 bus by a few minutes, so I waited for the 6:10 bus to arrive, and it didn't show up until 6:40. Or perhaps the bus that showed up was actually the 6:40 bus, and the 6:10, 6:20 and 6:30 buses simply never showed up. Either way, THIRTY FUCKING MINUTES LATE ON A LINE WHERE YOU'RE NEVER SUPPOSED TO WAIT MORE THAN 10 MINUTES.
Gavin Allen
The trainfag stared out the cracked window of the commuter express, watching as the scenes of smoldering ruins gave way to weed filled empty lots. He let out a brief sigh of resignation, taking a sip from his literjon of murky water that would have to last him the rest of the week, due to breakdowns at the water treatment plant. Despite his growing desire to just fucking kill himself, he was glad his 14-hour work day at the Martin Luther The King Agricultural Collective was over.
“Bix nood.” someone said.
“Huh?” the trainfag said wearily, looking up and seeing a Black youth and his friends surrounding him.
“Bix nood, mutha fugga!” he said, pointing at the water bottle.
“N..no, that’s all I have have!” the trainfag pleaded, like the chicken shit sissy worm he is.
But the Black youth didn’t care, drawing a pot-metal pistol from the waistband of hid drooping cargo shorts, he pointed it sideways at the trainfag and laughed; “Sheeeeit!”
The trainfag saw his pathetic life flash before his eyes, as he knew there was nothing he could do to defend himself, all Crackas (i.e. White Euro-Americans) having been disarmed by the Sins Of The Fathers Act signed into law by Queenz Malia Obama.
But he wouldn’t die by gunfire because at that moment, the rattle-trap train derailed. The Mexican railway workers had left early to behead some cross-town rivals, leaving repairs to the track unfinished, causing the train to crash and collapse upon itself.
As the trainfag lay there with his life’s blood leaking out, he tried to imagine a better way, a way where productive members of society weren’t packed like sardines into rickety broken-down trains among smelly brown people but due to his piss-poor education, he simply couldn’t think of anything else…
Jaxon Morales
Not sure which one is more accurate 2bh.
Brandon Russell
>Gentleman A departs home for work at 7:00AM, skipping breakfast in an effort to beat the morning rush. He stops by the drive-thru for a greasy morning meal deal instead. Unfortunately the freeway is a parking lot this morning, and gentleman A spends the next 2 hours crawling to work in a half conscious state, unable to give up quite enough attention from the task of driving to properly appreciate even some music or a radio programme. All the while, his cortisol levels are slowly rising, ageing his appearance and shortening his lifespan. He makes it to work at 9:13, and gingerly attempts to sneak in unnoticed. I guess gentleman A won't be making that promotion this year.
>Gentleman B is a public transport user, and thanks to timetabling schedules mandated by law can safely leave his home for work at 8:00 each morning. He uses this additional hour to exercise and prepare a nutritious breakfast. Once on the train to work, Gentleman B opens his laptop and reshreshes his memory on the presentation later that day, and even manages to do a bit of light reading before his train arrives at 8:38. He makes it to work with plenty of time to spare
Well, which are you Veeky Forumsfits?
Brody Turner
>usa socialist transport
that is what living in the capitol of capitalism is like
can't even compare with the 1st world
Oliver Martinez
Honestly you don't deserve the freedom you have as a citizen of the United States. Maybe North Korea is more your style.
Luke Robinson
>implying i live in your run-down and dilapidated foster home
>implying everyone on Veeky Forums is a tagged and released burger
Eli Ortiz
idk who framed Rodger Rabbit was pretty fucking complicated
Ian Walker
If you aren't an American then why are you commenting on American historical issues? You have no credibility here.
Levi Walker
you can call us The Watchers.
we have been studying you and your situation for a very long time. we visit your habitats, observing and analysing your week attempt at basic civilization.
Elijah Murphy
lards always moan about public transport, but here in china reality it's actually pretty good.
Train/bus companies get punished if a certain % of their trains are late
Hunter Wood
>Got to wake up at 4 to get to work by 8
>Americans will defend this
Hudson Price
>4am
>alarm rings
>fuckfuckfuckfuck I need to be at work at 8:45 or I'll be fired without tip
>wolf down my licensed cornsyrup-yummie-dingles with some milk
>get into car
>get in line for the starbucks-have-it-your-way car queue to get my daily dose (I swear to god it's like a drug, hahahah, amIright?)
>6am
>stuck in the regular jam on the speedway
>eat my first burger of the day, browse some twitter and facebook rolling with a steady 1mph
>8am
>traffic completely blocked up due to spontaneous clapping concerts occuring up and down the speedway
>this is taking for fucking ever
>gonna be late
>8:15am
>overhead planes give me genius idea
>leave car stuck in jam
>leg it over to the airpot tarmac, drawing energy from the thoughts of my health insurance
>pain is temporary but dental plans are forever
>in the confusion during the starting clapping concert smuggle myself on board on an old Boening 767
>8:30
>politely convince pilot to pass control over to me with a little help from my trusty AR-15 (which I'm entitled to bear) for which I tip him 20%
>8:44am
>carefully try to park the plane in the 62nd floor between Shannon's office and the water cooler
>8:46am
>I'm fucking fired
Joseph Cruz
>muhniggers
Stopped reading there.
Wyatt Anderson
> Gentleman C, an European, safely drives to work on an almost empty five lanes Autobahn in his 40.000€ Mercedes listening to music composed before America was even an idea, arrives at work at precisely 7:45 AM where he meets with representatives from five different nations, at 13:30 he goes to the gym inside the building complex where his office is located, works out, showers, then returns to work, all services provided by the firm. At 17:00 he leaves work and safely arrives at his home in approximately fifteen minutes thanks to infrastructure perfected in two thousand years.
Connor Lewis
>yfw car companies bought up LA's rail system so they can sell more cars
>yfw the free market "fixed" it
Cameron Lee
bullshit
it was the Chandler family in California who owned the newspapers and a good amount of stock in car tire manufacturing
Read David Habberstam's
The Powers That Be for a clue
but please get a clue
Xavier Peterson
>otherwise healthy system?
It wasn't healthy, it was a dying business that had several deadly crashes, accidents, and mismanagement that needed the federal government to come in and save it from extinction.
Colton Nelson
>Gentlemen C then looks out his window to see a plane falling from the sky, shot down by a Russian SAM for edging an inch closer to Russian airspace. "3rd time this month" he lets out a sigh and shakes his head as the news report of yet another plane crashing down from the sky appears on the radio.
Asher Martinez
Unless you're a Swede or a Jap, you can't really talk about failing infrastructure
Juan Hernandez
I hope you're not using the Tube as an example of "clean" or "beautiful"
Zachary Watson
Nice try Ivan, now get back to cleaning my windows for ten times more than your average university professor makes in your country.
Isaiah Parker
Luis Long
>Live in a rural area
>Public transportation is inefficient, expensive, and full of the lowest class of people.
Maybe these are true if you live in some densely packed city-shithole, but for anyone with a brain, you can drive in your personal vehicle 75 MPH almost all the way to work.
Levi Stewart
>tl;dr Capitalism sabotaged and destroyed public transportation
Robert Ward
>be American
>wake up at 5AM because my commute is 2.5 hours and I need to gobble up some Sugarflakes™ before I leave
>at least I have my radio™ to entertain me on the way there
>my favorite morning show, "Earwax and Buttslap in the morning on WTYQSSIOPRKER 103.9 FM sponsored by Audible™ and Stitcher™, Sticher - never miss an episode™" is on
>30 seconds of commercials for every 10 seconds of song. It's ok though they're a business right
>finally get to work, my boss yells at me for being 7 minutes late and says I'll never get my 9 year old daughter back from the child deposit boxtm sponsored by LootCrate™ - what was your loot today?™at this rate
>another wave of layoffs this year because a streetpooper in India is willing to do my job for $3 a day and free laxatives
>I've been feeling a sharp pain in my chest when I inhale but my $15k/year insurance barely covers cough medicine
>work my usual 10 hour shift, I might be back by 11 today, this is great
>I have 49 minutes to watch TV
>too bad by $70/month Comcast™ subscription only covers daytime telenovelas
>if I want to watch the game I need the $200/month sports package sponsored by ESPN™ - get your game on™
>well hopefully I can play some vidya at least
>console needs to download the daily 3GB update, it's gonna take 19 hours
>fuck it
>just before I got to bed I remember I'll have to ask my boss for the day off on Sunday, I'm running low on "cheese"™ and "veggies"™, sponsored by Monsanto™ - innovation, collaboration, speed™ and I need to buy some
>greatest country™
>good night
Nathaniel Bennett
Sheeyit can someone rectify these two claims?
If it's "A little bit of both happened" I'm going to be really upset because I like my history to be clear cut and have obvious villains.
Juan Morales
They are bitching about safety paint?
Adrian Rodriguez
>en.wikipedia.org
The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines and its subsidiaries, and to allegations that this was part of a deliberate plot to purchase and dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation, and to urban legends and other folklore inspired by these events.
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
>en.wikipedia.org
The General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines and its subsidiaries, and to allegations that this was part of a deliberate plot to purchase and dismantle streetcar systems in many cities in the United States as an attempt to monopolize surface transportation, and to urban legends and other folklore inspired by these events.
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
>convictions of General Motors (GM) and other companies for monopolizing
David Phillips
It doesn't even have to be rural, any suburban area is too far removed from a bus/train line to make it efficient in most cases.
My town used to have a streetcar system downtown when it was all factories. Once those died out and people spread out to build suburbs in the woods it ended. Simple as that.
Connor Brooks
Black people can't be criminals?
James Green
>1950
>still riding mass transit
Do you even know what year it is? I mean look at GM's great new lineup!
Luis Flores
GM would like to have a word w/ u
>GM's Opel was the largest car and truck maker in the Third Reich. When Hitler came to power, his nation was still primarily a horse-drawn country. From the outset, GM consciously mass produced cars and truck for the German military, becoming a major and indispensable spear of Nazi rearmament. This included the Blitz truck which became the mainstay of the Blitzkrieg that conquered Europe. GM concealed its American control of Opel through special executives committees and board directorates. After the War, GM took all the profit, including that gained from slave labor. After a Congressional investigation, GM tried to obscure the facts and pressured Washington about a special report on the company's activities. To this day, the company frustrates research efforts into its protracted and profitable involvement in Nazi genocide
>General Motors, James D. Mooney, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle for his distinguished service to the Reich. "Nazi armaments chief Albert Speer told a congressional investigator that Germany could not have attempted its September 1939 Blitzkrieg of Poland without the performance-boosting additive technology provided by Alfred P. Sloan and General Motors".[20][21][22] During the war, GM's Opel Brandenburg facilities produced bombers JU-88, trucks, land mines and torpedo detonators for Nazi Germany
Noah Diaz
Not sure what your point is. Lots of American corporations conducted business with Germany at the time (they also conducted business simultaneously with the Soviet Union).
Brandon Morris
>us corporations create nazi war machine
>create
>General Motors and Ford creates the motorized nazi war machine
>IBM partners with nazis to efficiently run the extermination of millions in Europe with IBM systems
>The Carnegie Institution and its sponsored movement spent millions to propagate American eugenic theories in post-WWI Germany, financing race science programs in universities and official institutions. These included the idea that Jews must be eliminated.
>Rockefeller funded Hitler’s chief raceologist Otmar Verschuer and his insatiable twin experimentation programs.
edwinblack.com
nazinexus.com
thecuttingedgenews.com
internalcombustionbook.com
it was not mere business they actually made germany great again
sorta like day did w/ taliban and all da oda shiet
Michael Thomas
Okay?
Mason Bailey
and remember henry ford and his blueprint book that sprung germany to greatness
he got plenty of reich medals for all his efforts, much like GM and the other corporations
tl;dr corporations = nazis, genocide of streetcar
Angel Sullivan
>remember the 6 million streetcars
Luke Morales
Is the lightbulb conspiracy true?
William Ramirez
someone post this on /auto/
Brayden Richardson
>lightbulb conspiracy
What?
Ian Edwards
The interurbans were lumped with a lot of overheads, I'm not sure many would have survived the mid century without public sector support.
James Wood
They wouldn't have.
Of the four interurban lines that survived past 1960, two were abandoned due to a lack of public funds, while the two survivors were subsidized.
Carter Walker
Portland, NYC, and Seattle are about the only cities with good public transit.... even though Seattle's transit is expensive as fuck.
Aaron Foster
Reminder: We fucking own you.
t. America
Joseph Hall
AFAIK, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia have good rail service.
Kevin Martin
>Boston
quality varies WILDLY by what line you are on
Benjamin Parker
Look at all the dumb cunts in this thread. The free market killed off public transportation.
Public transport died off because back before we got ass raped with bullshit taxes and other costs owning a car, maintaining it, and driving it was dirt fucking cheap.
Go ask your grandpa when 5 liters of gasonline was under 20 cents and you didn't have to have insurance as well.
Oh hi cancer. Fuck off back to redd1t.
Aaron Reed
There was a cartel to keep costs low and prices high but it ended when someone outside it entered the market.
Planned obsolescence is also a thing in many industries besides light bulbs but in light bulbs it just became industry standard nobody even bothers questioning. There's a fire station in New York I think that has 100 years or so old light bulb still working.
Logan Young
>Go ask your grandpa when 5 liters of gasoline was under 20 cents
Oh golly gee inflation isn't a thing.
Caleb Evans
Your tense suggests that the reduction in average lifespan is a contemporary issue, but the Phoebus cartel was short lived, WWII put an end to it. The reduction in avg bulb lifespan was only about 40%, and GE, which was a prime mover behind the establishment of the cartel and later a significant stakeholder in most of the members, was caught out in the 40s; though finer details about the machinations of the cartel have only more recently seen the light of day.
Brandon Cook
What is up with Veeky Forums and hating cars?
>all you ever do in a car is sit in traffic
stop driving on nothing but highways and interstates, faggot.
No, it's just that I don't see the reason why we need to put funding into Public Transit when there are streets in my city so ill-paved if you go the posted speed limit you run a very real risk of losing control.
Fix the problems, don't just create more problems.
owning, maintaining and driving a brand new car is dirt fucking cheap, you just have to do all the work yourself instead of paying your local mechanic 50 bucks to order a 15 dollar piece off the internet and spend 10 minutes installing it, then charge you for the 2 hours he spent checking facebook.
t. mechanic