Reddit reviews The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors
We found 8 Reddit comments about The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
There is a whole book on the subject how to finance roads privately. Walter Block - Privatization of Roads and Highways. You can download it for free from the mises institute. Here is a lecture you can watch.
>ll the services and infrastructure that only exist because other people paid taxes for them in the past.
There we go, the standard "what about the roads?" bullshit. It does not follow that if something is done with tax money today, that it always was so, or that it always must be so. Here's how to take care of roads, for one example: http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-Highways-Walter-Block/dp/193355004X
People want roads, and if we all got to spend our earnings on the things we choose, I'm sure we'd have no shortage of roads or schools, and we wouldn't be spending money on goons to grope old ladies in airports.
Privatization of Roads and Highways If only just for the ability to answer people when they ask about those damn roads.
Walter Block - Privatization of Roads and Highways
>Taxes are necessary to ensure unlimited free-use of certain properties. In a free-market, who paves the roads and who owns them?
There's lots of literature out there in regard to private road systems. Walter Block wrote a whole book about it a few years ago:
http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-Highways-Walter-Block/dp/193355004X
I always think its funny that, when debating libertarians, the thing people first jump to defend and are most concerned about is road building. I think most libertarians would be perfectly content living in a society in which the government did nothing but build roads.
>A government which charges only as much as it needs to maintain a public structure is preferable to a company who can charge any amount and also randomly change policy, in regards to access.
If a private company charges an unfair price, you can choose a different company. The only recourse we have to a government entity that charges too much is jail.
And you think government entities don't "randomly change policy"?
>The only problem is reality. People are going to do shady things, especially when no one is there to tell them "no".
This is the exact reason why I oppose the state.
> Well, where do you think roads and all the other infrastructure your rely on comes from?
If you have 30min please listen to what Walter Block has to say about roads: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XUA4h8ctNWM
If you prefer reading:
I think this is the key right here. Roads are already paid for by major corporation through taxes on shipping. It is argued that were it not for government monopolization of roads that there would be 1) far fewer accidents. Today, "owners" of roads are not liable for problems related to the product. 2) something else. Why does it need to be roads per say? "Corporations" / businesses need goods transported reliably and safely. Walter Block believes thee is a good chance that had government not gotten involved the country would be covered in rail rather than roads.
But ultimately we can not KNOW how it would have evolved freely, we only know how it did evolve--violent coersion. It is always people that get things done when there are problems to be solved. Big things will always require many people cooperating to get them done. Government has simply appointed itself an authority in the approval to big projects. They have had so much influence and injected so much control over everything that "we" can't imagine doing anything without them.
Government doesn't create, it permits... once it has determined the cut of it they like.
>Simple trade transactions can get fucked up when one party provides false information about what they're selling, or doesn't provide what they promised
This is fraud, and can occur under any economic structure. The question of how to effectively punish/discourage it, in order to protect property rights, is a separate issue. You're confusing economic and political systems.
>or the transaction has effects on unrelated parties (think toxic waste), or when competition is impossible or detrimental (think roads or sewers).
You're talking about externalities and, in the case of roads, an unnecessary monopoly. Again, we can discuss which political system disposes of these matters in the most fair/equitable/efficient way, but this has nothing to do with trade.
>Anyone who says they have a simple solution -- whether it be "REGULATE REGULATE REGULATE" or "FREEDOM LIBERTY RON PAUL 08" -- is full of shit.
Every government intervention in trade funnels resources to where they would not be directed voluntarily, which by definition makes individuals worse off. This is epistemologically irrefutable, unless you believe that the government or another 3rd party knows your subjective valuation preferences (and can act on them) better than you.