The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Homesteading City Streets:
An Exercise in Managerial Theory 239
PRIVATIZATION
What, then, is the best process for converting vehicular thoroughfares
from the public to the private sector, stipulating if only
for the sake of argument that this is not a quixotic quest, that it
can work, if it is but implemented?
There are several choices. First, let us address the issue of
whether these resources should be given to the citizenry, or sold
to it. The case for the former seems clear: it is the people whose
resources went into the creation of the roads in the first place,
not that of the government. True, the state was the proximate
cause of the spending, but, ultimately, the money came from the
long-suffering taxpayer. Indeed, the state has no money of its
own, over and above that mulcted from the citizenry. Further, it
is the government, if we are correct in our underlying analysis,
which is responsible for the problems of road socialism in the
first place. It would come with particular ill grace for the guilty
institution to reap the fruits of correcting problems it itself created.
The point is, if the roads are sold, the proceeds will be
given to the city administration, the last group of people deserving
of them.
Given, then, that we reject sales, and favor giveaways, who
are the worthy recipients? Several immediately come to mind:
those who travel on the streets (or otherwise use them), those
who live or work in the surrounding buildings, and those who
own these edifices. How can the claims of these various candidates
be reconciled? How can they be ranked, so that those with
a greater ones are given proportionately more ownership rights
than those with lesser?
Fortunately, there is a theory that can elucidate these problems.
It may not give definitive answers to the nearest four decimal
points, but at least it can point in a proper direction. The theory
is that of libertarianism, based on private property rights and
homesteading; this may be readily used as a means of determining
how un-owned resources can pass from that state into human