The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Free-Market Transportation:
Denationalizing the Roads *
INTRODUCTION
Were a government to demand the sacrifice of 46,700 citizens
1 each year, there is no doubt that an outraged public
would revolt. If an organized religion were to plan
the immolation of 523,335 of the faithful in a decade, 2 there is no
question that it would be toppled. Were there a Manson-type cult
that murdered 790 people to celebrate Memorial Day, 770 to
usher in the Fourth of July, 915 to commemorate Labor Day, 960
at Thanksgiving, and solemnized Christmas with 355 more
* This chapter first appeared as Walter Block, “Free Market Transportation:
Denationalizing the Roads,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 3, no. 2 (Summer,
1979): 209–38. The author wishes to express a debt of gratitude to
Charles G. Koch and Edward H. Crane III of the Cato Institute, without
whose efforts this work could not have been undertaken.
1The number of people who were victims of motor vehicle accidents in
1976, in Accident Facts (Chicago: National Safety Council, 1977), p. 13.
2The number of road and highway deaths in the decade, 1967–1976, in
ibid.
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