[406] in libertarians
[tjic@icd.teradyne.com: Re: Road Privitization]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (damartin@ampere.mit.edu)
Mon Nov 14 16:33:07 1994
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 1994 16:31:40 -0500
From: damartin@ampere.mit.edu
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
>It is also not guaranteed that roads under a private system would be
>better than they currently are: the only guarantee is that the system
>would allocate resources better. The average person might not, when
>he has to pay for it himself, demand the same level of quality in his
>roads. He might settle for a slightly lower quality road, if it were
>much cheaper.
This is an important point that people often overlook. A free
market will not give you everything that you want. It gives you what
you want AND can/will pay for. But if you can't pay for it, you don't
get it. Of course, it also optimizes the chances of you someday being
able to pay for it. A socialist system tries to give everyone
everything that the elite thinks they need. As a result, most people
get little or nothing.
Thus, our roads might not get much better overall, but you will
have more options. If your car's suspension is dying, you can pay more
to drive on the nice road, for example.
In any case, my orginal post was an existence proof that
sometimes the state is unable to maintain roads, but private companies
can.
-David
