The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Compromising the
Uncompromisable:
Speed Limits, Parades,
Cigarettes *
Libertarian, political, and economic philosophy is based on
the nonaggression axiom. 1 In this perspective the one act
that ought to be legally proscribed is the initiation of violence
against nonaggressors. There are many who disagree with
this view. Some maintain that far more ought to be illegal; others
that not all invasions should be. While the critics may disagree
amongst themselves on many issues, most have in common the
belief that laissez-faire capitalism is altogether too radical. This
*This chapter originally appeared as “Theories of Highway Safety,”
Transportation Research Record #912 (1983): 7–10. The author wishes to thank
David Kennedy, Anthony Sullivan, and the Trustees of the Earhart Foundation
for the financial support necessary to write this article. The opinions
expressed herein, of course, reflect the thinking of the author alone.
1Murray N. Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:
Humanities Press, 1982), pp. 85-96.
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