The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

11
Homesteading City Streets:
An Exercise in
Managerial Theory *
Privatizing all goods and services will satisfy consumers far
more effectively than allowing their management to
remain in the hands of the state, under socialist provision.
If we have learned one thing from the fall of the economic system
of the U.S.S.R., it is that. More controversially, city streets are no
exception to this general rule. They, too, can be mismanaged by
the municipal government, or run more efficiently though the
institutions of private property and competition. What society
needs is a system wherein entrepreneurs are rewarded for promoting
consumer sovereignty, and penalized for failing to satisfy
customers. The ballot box vote is perhaps aimed in this general
direction, but it is cumbersome: elections occur only every four
years, and the electorate is usually given a choice between only
*The author benefited from discussions with Jeff Tucker while writing
this article; he wishes, also, to acknowledge the benefit of some very helpful
suggestions made to him by two referees of “Planning and Markets.”
The chapter first appeared as Walter Block, “Homesteading City Streets: An
Exercise in Managerial Theory,” Planning and Markets 5, no. 1 (September
2002): 18–23.
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