The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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18 Open Letter to Mothers Against Drunk Driving * Although I shall be criticizing you, even severely, please do not take this amiss. I mean your organization no harm. Quite the contrary. My two children, in their early twenties, are both new drivers. I would suffer more than I can tell you if anything were to happen to them as a result of drunken driving. I am thus a supporter of yours. I am on your side. Please take what I say as no more than friendly amendments to your plans and proposals. Some of the following critiques may sound harsh, but friends do not mince words with each other in life and death situations, and I would like you to consider me a friend of yours. We may disagree on means, but certainly not on ends. EXPANSION First, you must expand your scope of operations. While drunk driving is of course a major calamity on our nation’s roads, it is far from the only one. There are quite a few others, even besides the “big three” of speed, weather conditions and driver *The chapter first appeared as Walter Block, “Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property: Reply to Gordon Tullock,” Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 8, no. 2/3 (June–September 1998): 315–26. 347
348 The Privatization of Roads and Highways error. 1 What difference does it really make if our children and loved ones die in a traffic fatality emanating from drunkenness or any of these other conditions? Happily there is no need to change even the MADD name if you adopt this suggestion. Only instead of the first “D” standing for “drunk” it could refer to “death,” as in Mothers Against Death Drivers. All of these things—alcohol, drugs, speeding, malfunctioning vehicles, badly engineered roads, weather conditions, whatever—are threats to our families’ lives. Why single out any one of them? A possible defense of the status quo is to borrow a leaf from the economists, and defend the present, limited, status of MADD on grounds of specialization and division of labor. 2 True, no one organization can do everything. Better to take on a limited agenda and do it well than to take on too much and accomplish little or nothing. 1Sam Peltzman, “The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation,” Journal of Political Economy 83, no. 4 (1975): 677–725, lists the following: Vehicle speed . . . alcohol consumption . . . the number of young drivers . . . changes in drivers incomes . . . the money costs of accidents . . . the average age of cars . . . the ratio of new cars to all cars (because it has been suggested that while drivers familiarize themselves with their new cars, accident risk may increase) . . . traffic density . . . expenditures on traffic-law enforcement by state highway patrols expenditures on roads . . . the ratio of imports to total car (because there is evidence that small cars are more lethal than large cars if an accident occurs) . . . education of the population . . . and the availability of hospital care (which might reduce deaths if injury occurs). The list put together by the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration is much larger. See on this www.nhtsa.dot.gov/. See also Traffic Safety Facts 2001 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at www.nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/TSFAnn/TSF2001.pdf, and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database at www.fars. nhtsa.dot.gov queryReport.cfm?stateid=0&year=2001. 2See on this Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, [1776] 1965).
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The Privatization of Roads and High
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This book is dedicated to my fellow
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vi The Privatization of Roads and H
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viii The Privatization of Roads and
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x The Privatization of Roads and Hi
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Acknowledgments Iwould like to than
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Introduction Most people who read t
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Introduction xvii dealing with obje
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1 Free-Market Transportation: Denat
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Free-Market Transportation: Denatio
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3 Public Goods and Externalities: T
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Public Goods and Externalities: The
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Part II Applications
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6 Road Socialism * What are the bes
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Road Socialism 185 of the state app
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Road Socialism 187 It is in order t
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Road Socialism 189 indicates that v
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Road Socialism 191 vehicle inspecti
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Road Socialism 193 that “The domi
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Road Socialism 195 imaginative and
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Road Socialism 197 2. Perhaps the p
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Road Socialism 199 bouncer, to each
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7 Compromising the Uncompromisable:
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Compromising the Uncompromisable: S
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8 Roads and the Immigration Issue T
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Roads and the Immigration Issue 217
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9 The Motor Vehicle Bureau Newly ar
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The Motor Vehicle Bureau 225 In the
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10 Privatize Public Highways * Acro
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Privatize Public Highways 231 Thoma
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11 Homesteading City Streets: An Ex
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Homesteading City Streets: An Exerc
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13 Transition to Private Roads * Le
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Transition to Private Roads 281 pre
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Transition to Private Roads 283 Blo
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Transition to Private Roads 285 to
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Transition to Private Roads 287 But
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Transition to Private Roads 289 The
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Part IV Critiques
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Aiding and Abetting Road Socialism
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Part V Conclusion
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APPENDIX I Annual U.S. Street & Hig
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Appendices 423 It cannot be denied
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