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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Private roads
Message-ID: <954@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Dec-85 07:20:50 EST
Article-I.D.: mmintl.954
Posted: Fri Dec 27 07:20:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Dec-85 06:45:42 EST
References: <849@mmintl.UUCP> <28200425@inmet.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 75

In article <28200425@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>[Frank Adams ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka]
>>In article <28200390@inmet.UUCP> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>   [Frank Adams :]
>>And the proper response to this generic rebuttal is to note that there
>>are many areas where the government has done a great deal of good.
>>Without the power of eminent domain, we would all be much poorer.  Public
>>road-building has done a great deal of good.  You may argue that private
>>roads could have done as well, but that is an unproven assumption.  In
>>fact, public roadbuilding took place because of a recognized need for
>>the roads, and a perceived inability of the private sector to provide
>>them.  The libertarian proposal is to build toll roads.  But for local
>>roads, the cost of collecting tolls probably exceeds the cost of building
>>and maintaining the roads.
>
>The proper way to test these assertions is by controlled  experi-
>ment:  two  comparable zones in one of which government exercises
>eminent domain and builds roads and in the  other  collects  less
>taxes.  Elsewhere  you  made a rather sweeping statement that so-
>cial experimentation is dangerous and I tried to draw a  distinc-
>tion  between  proper  experimentation, relatively safe and abso-
>lutely necessary, and rash wholesale innovation, almost univer-
>sally  harmful. 

This one really can't be done on a small scale.  If you try it in
an area as small as, say, a U.S. county, people will just bypass it
using free public roads nearby.  You had better plan on doing it
for a whole state, at minimum.

Now that state, whichever it is, already has a lot of roads in it.
If this experiment is going to work, you will have to sell them to
somebody.  Whoever buys them will have to spend a fair amount of money
to enable them to collect tolls.  This seriously interferes with the
access rights of those with adjoining property -- the state will at
least have to exercize its eminent domain one last time to force them
to sell those rights.

And I really think that the effect of all this would be that people would
move out of the state in droves, and that those left would be impoverished.
This would not be easily reversed, either; it is much easier to destroy
the economy in a region than it is to build it back up again.

Doesn't sound "relatively safe and absolutely necessary" to me.

>Until the experiment has been made, on whom is the burden of proof?
>I would claim, the advocates of government control and coercion.
>Since you approve, in principle, of a sunset law - it would seem
>that you agree. But then your sentence above :
>
>>You may argue that private
>>roads could have done as well, but that is an unproven assumption.  
>
>should read:
>
>You may argue that private
>roads could have done no better, but that is an unproven assumption.  

I would claim, until an experiment has been made, the burden of proof is
on those who wish to change the status quo.  I approve of a sunset law;
but I also approve of a constitution and common law which are not subject
to it.

It is an established fact that private roads have nowhere been built.  It
is an established fact that railroads have never been built without state
exercize of eminent domain (and almost always, subsidies, too).  It is
an established fact that airports large enough to handle jets have always
been built with public money, using eminent domain.

Part of the reason why these things have never been done privately is
because of public competition.  But this puts the cart before the horse.
The reason for public spending on these things is that private interests
did not provide them.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108