Sociology 4350: Worksheet--"Taken for a Ride: General Motors and the Demise of Mass Transit"

A coalition of activist groups has named Thursday, January 31, 2008 as the date for a national teach-in on global warming. As I thought about how a course on corporate and government deviance could fit with this theme, this movie that I ordinarily use in my Social Stratification course came to mind. Compared with the other advanced industrial countries, the United States uses energy, and contributes to global warming, in a way that is disproportionately high. Sweden, for example, has a living standard as high as the U.S. but uses less than half as much energy per capita. A big reason has to do with public transportation. The average Swede uses mass transit to get to work; the family car (and it's usually just one) is mostly reserved for longer trips. Why does the United States have the worst mass transit system of all the industrialized countries? An important part of the answer has to do with the corporate wrong-doing. Here's the story of how America was 'taken for a ride."

1. What was the major method of transportation in American cities in the 1920s? What were its advantages, both for the average city-dweller and in relation to global warming (which of course wouldn't even be "discovered" until the 1950s)?

2. How was General Motors involved with eliminating streetcar lines in major cities? Who were its allies?

3. When General Motors and its corporate allies were convicted of criminal anti-trust violations for their role in the above process, what was the penalty?

4. How was General Motors involved in the decision-making that eventually led to the creation of the Federal Interstate Highway System? How did that in turn contribute to suburbanization and to the decline of railroads as a major carrier and people and goods between cities?

Sociology 3945: Groups--"Taken for a Ride: GM and the Demise of Mass Transit"

1. Would streetcar systems have been eliminated and replaced by diesel busses even without the illegal activities of General Motors and the companies that joined them in forming National City Lines? How would you support your conclusions?

2. How would the United States be different if we still had high quality, large-scale mass transit in cities large and small? Do you think the overall quality of life would be better or worse? What about energy use and the generation of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide?

3. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act,. passed in the 1890s, provides: "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal.... Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony." Although it was aimed at corporations, in its early years it was more often applied against unions trying to strike or boycott an employer. Here, though, we see it being applied against a company that was by the late 1940s the largest corporation in the world (General Motors). Why do you suppose the penalties were so minimal? Do you suppose Americans in the 1940s and 1950s regarded General Motors as a major law-breaker? Should they have?

4. Under what conditions can we expect large corporations to become strong and effective advocates of action against global warming? What are some of the limits on corporations as global good citizens?