I think the issue here is with the word "conspiracy". As Halcyon points out, companies buy other companies and mothball them if they're competition. It's just the way it works. That's what's proven. What's not proven, and won't be, because it's ridiculous, is that some nefarious international consortium systematically uprooted streetcars for some evil reason. Dont overlook what Rover is saying - capitalism creates a culture that wants something new, and cars and suburbs were new. They were a change, and that's also what America wanted at the time. I see in the more extreme proffering of conspiracy arguments the same anger and paranoia splashed all over today's America, just in this case, the bad guys are the auto industry, bus industry, drivers, etc. Don't discount the human responsibility for everything that happens: the decline of streetcars wasn't crammed down the throats of an unwilling populace; it happened for a reason and fell in line with a zeitgeist that we're probably still too close to in time to fully discern. Not to throw bombs, but if you think that Trump or something like him just "happens" in either a vacuum or only because of the "bad guys", you're missing the fundamental point of how group dynamics work... we all bear responsibility for everything that happens...