The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

20 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
A man buys a piece of land. He builds a house on it. He stocks
it with food, and then brings his family to join him. When they
are all happily ensconced, they learn that the road fronting their
little cottage has been purchased by an unscrupulous street
owning corporation, which will not allow him or his family the
use of the road at any but an indefinitely high price. The family
may “live happily ever after,” but only as long as they keep to
their own house. Since the family is too poor to afford a helicopter,
the scheming road owner has the family completely in
his power. He may starve them into submission, if he so desires.
This does indeed appear frightening, but only because we are
not accustomed to dealing with such a problem. It could not exist
under the present system, so it is difficult to see how it could be
solved by free-market institutions. Yet, the answer is simple: no
one would buy any plot of land without first insuring that he had
the right to enter and leave at will. 15
Similar contracts are now commonplace on the market, and
they give rise to no such blockade problems. Flea markets often
rent out tables to separate merchandisers; gold and diamond
exchanges usually sublet booths to individual, small merchants;
desk space is sometimes available to people who cannot afford
an entire office of their own. The suggestion that these contracts
are unworkable or unfeasible, on the grounds that the owner of
the property might prohibit access to his subtenant, could only be
considered ludicrous. Any lawyer who allowed a client to sign a
lease which did not specify the rights of access in advance would
be summarily fired, if not disbarred. This is true in the present,
and would also apply in an era of private roads.
15Says Rothbard:
The answer is that everyone, in purchasing homes or street service
in a libertarian society, would make sure that the purchase or
lease contract provides full access for whatever term of years is
specified. With this sort of “easement” provided in advance by
contract, no such sudden blockade would be allowed, since it
would be an invasion of the property right of the landowner. (For
a New Liberty, p. 205)