The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

390 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
PARTNERING WITH THE DEVIL
Here, Poole advocates Public-Private Partnerships24 in order
to address traffic problems in Wisconsin. Again, the details of this
specific case do not concern us. What does is that so-called Public-Private
Partnerships are anathema to the free-enterprise system,
and this analyst swallows them whole, without question.
Let us thrust ourselves into the scenario depicted above:
state-run restaurants. Now, the “libertarian” commentator urges
a PPP25 for this industry. This means, if it means anything at all,
that private enterprise combines with government in some sort
of unholy alliance, and becomes a creature combining the characteristics
of both. But that can only be a first approximation,
since the two are necessarily incompatible. For government rests
on coercion, 26 and the market is the quintessentially voluntary
institution. So, what trait must this mischievous combination of
the two take on? Clearly those of the former. If an organization is
in part based on coercive levies, and part on voluntary contributions,
then, as a whole, it takes on that of the former. This is
because if a group is coercive part of the time, then it is a coercive
group. 27
24www.rppi.org/ps304.pdf. Somewhat disconcertingly, there is even an
abbreviation for Public-Private Partnerships: PPP. This is troublesome,
since it would appear that in this literature, the concept is ubiquitous
enough to deserve an abbreviation. For shame.
25When in Rome . . .
26If you don’t believe that, try not paying your taxes and see what happens
to you. For a more rigorous defense of this claim, see Hans-Hermann
Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism: Economics, Politics and Ethics
(Boston: Dordrecht, 1989; idem, The Economics and Ethics of Private Property:
Studies in Political Economy and Philosophy (Boston: Kluwer, 1993); idem,
Democracy—The God That Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy,
Democracy, and Natural Order (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 2001);
Rothbard, The Ethics of Liberty; Lysander Spooner, No Treason (Larkspur,
Colo.: Pine Tree Press, 1966).
27Hitler and Stalin themselves were not entirely evil men. Part of the
time they slept, and perpetrated no evil. At other times, they engaged in