The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

218 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
helicopter (or plane) travel, when they venture out of their newly
homesteaded territory?
There is, also, a second way in which the issue of private
roads impinges upon that of immigration. Go back to the Hoppean
scenario of complete private ownership. Suppose there
were a U.S. citizen who purchased, or otherwise legitimately
came to own, a vast tract of land in the middle of Alaska, or
Nevada—thousands of square miles. He then invited, suppose,
one billion Chinese, or Africans, or South Americans, or other
foreigners to come and live and work on his land. Since this is a
mutually agreed upon situation, there can be no question of trespassing.
But the question still remains: would these hordes of
people be confined to these hinterlands, or, apart from air travel
(with willing hosts at the other end of these trips), would they
have access to all6 surrounding territory through the roadway
network, as in the case of other people?
Thus, we arrive at the same question from both sources. One,
if the foreigners homestead out of the way places on their own,
and two, if an American property owner invites numerous foreigners
onto his territory. Will these people be able to percolate
throughout the entire country, as is the practice for everyone else,
or will they be confined, by the institution of private road ownership,
to their beachheads?
But perhaps we go too fast in blithely assuming that “everyone
else,” all those other people already living in the domestic
country, will have full freedom of movement. If they do not, the
way ahead is easier to see where the newcomers will not enjoy
these privileges either.
After all, while racial (sexual, ethnic, orientation, etc., etc.)
discrimination is pretty much against the law of the land, it by no
6 Perhaps we should say “most” here, to incorporate the fact that there
might be gated communities, and other institutions that narrowly restricted
access to their property. But still, the question remains, would these new
one billion immigrants be treated on much the same basis as extant inhabitants
of the country?