The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Roads and the Immigration Issue 219
means contravenes libertarianism, the philosophy now under
discussion. 7 So, will all racial, sexual and ethnic etc., groups be
allowed onto the private network of roads, streets and highways,
or not? We ask, under the assumption, at least on the first go
round on this, that new foreigners will be treated roughly in the
same manner as domestic minority groups.
The problem with this question is that it is exceedingly difficult
to anticipate the operation of the free enterprise system
regarding the road industry or, indeed, any other for that matter.
This task is essentially an entrepreneurial, not an economic, one.
If so pedestrian an item as pencils were suddenly moved from
the public to the private sector, the analogous questions would
come fast and furious, with no obvious objective answers in
sight: How long, wide, thick and heavy would these writing
implements be? Would erasers be attached, and if so, how so, and
if not, who would supply the latter? Would there be specialty
stores that sold pencils, or would they be marketed alongside
other office materials? How much would they cost? What profits
would be earned on them? Who would attach the wood, graphite,
rubber to one another, and how on earth would they be gathered
together in one place, given that they come from different ends of
7 Richard A. Epstein, Forbidden Grounds: The Case against Employment Discrimination
Laws (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992); Walter
Williams, “On Discrimination, Prejudice, Racial Income Differentials,
and Affirmative Action,” in Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal
Opportunity, Walter Block and Michael Walker, eds. (Vancouver, B.C.: Fraser
Institute, 1982); Thomas Sowell, “Weber and Bakke, and the Presuppositions
of ‘Affirmative Action’,” in Discrimination, Affirmative Action and Equal
Opportunity, Walter Block and Michael Walker, eds. (Vancouver, B.C.: Fraser
Institute, 1982); Roy Whitehead and Walter Block, “Should the Government
be Allowed to Engage in Racial, Sexual or Other Acts of Discrimination?,”
Northern Illinois University Law Review 22, no. 1 (Fall, 2001): 53–84; Roy
Whitehead, Walter Block, and Lu Hardin, “Gender Equity in Athletics:
Should We Adopt a Non-Discriminatory Model?,” University of Toledo Law
Review 30, no. 2 (Winter, 1999): 223–49.