Customer Reviews

Privatization of Roads and Highways

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For libertarians, there is no one living person more irreplaceable to the economics and theory of a free society than Walter Block. Ron Paul is the most important for informing the masses, Lew Rockwell is unmistakably at the forefront of spreading and promoting the message, and Dr. Block is the preeminent scholar for all things libertarian and the application of such. (Quick note- I'm not suggesting this is in anyway a complete or definitive list, there are many more people that fit into these categories of good guys but for the sake of review space I have just called out those three for illustrative purposes).

In his latest book, Dr. Block calls for a complete rehashing of our current socialist (and in some places fascist) roads, highways, alleyways, driveways, sidewalks, etc. To put a name to it, he suggests that the whole thing be privatized and subject to the demands and competition of consumers just like any other [rational] industry. For those who are not yet familiar with Dr. Walter Block, you will note the rigorous approach with which he applies libertarian theory to all aspects in society, seemingly having been passed the torch from Murray Rothbard. Never is libertarianism more fun than when presented by Walter Block, he offers a die-hard strict libertarian approach to all issues and highlights the inconsistency and hypocrisy that is central to the critics of liberty, all the while providing several good laughs along the way.

After the initial three chapters, which, as a casual reader, were very lengthy and detailed and somewhat difficult to follow for a layman, the stage is set and a most important case made: privatize the roads! Comprised of many previously published articles, as well as some brand new ones presented as chapters, there is far less redundancy than I would have expected from such a format. The depth of each chapter and dissecting of each issue pertaining to road privatization underscores the very complex and deadly structure that the U.S., and the world over, operate under. Dr. Block shows the importance of adhering to the axiom of non-aggression and applying libertarian principles, many derived from The Ethics of Liberty, to all areas of human life- including the all too often let-off-the-hook, and often assumed to be justifiable for government ownership, roads.

For libertarians, this book is a must. For mainstream statists, this is the book from hell.

In this great book Walter Block show that in any circunstances freedom is always the best solution for every conflict that can possibly occur beteween individuals. Roads and streets, and every single piece of land should be private, no land should belong to "us all" or even worse, to the State.
Read this book and you will understand what I am saying.

Dr. Walter Block, though an economist who would seemingly only focus on the viability of road privatization, is greatly concerned with the life saving ability of the free market; not that he doesn't explain how private roads can be profitable and practical, but he elaborates extensively on how the free market would dramatically increase the safety for consumers (drivers). He points to the inherent inability of bureaucracy to excel (see Ludwig von Mises' _Socialism_) and how other free market industries have improved safety.

This book will challenge the typical free market supporter; if you are such a person, read this book and learn if you really support free market principles in almost all cases, or if your faith is less strong. Then, if you do, consider anarchocapitalism - Dr. Block's political philosophy. He accused Milton Friedman of being a "road socialist", and Friedman admitted he didn't believe the free market could provide such a public good. Block references the history of successful private roads, but even with this proof it is controversial still.

In a world where road costs are paid for by citizens and controlled by a government unaccountable to those citizens, then the idea of privatizing the roadways makes sense. In today's world the private industry already builds and maintains our roads but under the direction of a bureaucratic organization that wastes more money than it employs to actually care for the roads. Since when has a politician ever been a road designer & engineer? Even if they were engineers it is probably safe to say the small wages paid to government workers does not draw first in class engineers. It's as if we have cut out the middle man by privatizing the repair and building of the highways but tied the private sector up so they cannot operate efficiently. In the end we pay for the inefficient. In this book it is laid out how we can effectively get the roads fixed and save money in the long run. It offers novel ways to meet these ends that will reduce costs and eliminate waste by removing the bureaucrats. It will also reduce costs by reducing government. Our roads would be our own and not up for sale to foreign interests as a commodity as so many tollways have recently been marketed.

Taking control of our roadways removes so many monetary obstacles thrown in our way but bureaucrats haggling over what fund they can rob to pay Paul or themselves. There are many good and functional ideas presented in this book to take back our roadways and make them safer, more economical and useful in the future.

Block makes some very interesting and compelling arguments for the privatization of transportation, specifically roadway networks. As far as I can tell, he is one of the few (only?) who has made the direct jump from describing transportation in economic terms to so clearly advocating such an effective remedy.

Unfortunately Block argues that roadway privatization is the only moral and reasonable way to address our transportation woes, and if another, but less market driven means is available that could be as or more effective at ameliorating transportation congestion, it should be rejected on philosophical grounds. In doing this, Block is uncompromising, which is unfortunate since his purist views on the subject seem to exclude anyone with even a small difference in view.

Overall, this is an interesting read on transportation privatization if you don't mind sifting through all of the political ideology and can forgive a few errors in engineering (and possibly economic) judgment in favor of paying due attention to a good idea.

This is exactly what the British are planning to do with some of their transportation networks right now. In case no one has noticed, the British government is not one that believes in freedom or justice or anything that is good for its own people.

Private roads with tolls = enslavement, serfdom, etc. It is a method of population control which restricts freedom of movement.

P. 334/335: Block takes cost efficiency estimates of private/public projects and applies them directly to road death tolls. This is like saying a private 10 megaton nuclear weapon will kill more people than a government 10 megaton one because the private one will be more effective.

Other fun facts (p337): Tim McVeigh didn't kill 186 people, because some would have died anyway.

Actually, they all would have died anyway, since we all die eventually. By Block's logic, McVeigh's death toll varies statistically depending on the length of time since his actions. The hour after the bombing, McVeigh has killed 186 people since probably none would have died of natural causes in that hour period. After a 100 years or so, McVeigh has killed no one, because all 186 would have likely died of natural causes in the preceding 100 years. Urrr, right.....

Even more fun, p340: private roadbuilders will build various roads to cater to drivers desires, eg. fast but safe at higher driver cost, slower but safe at lower cost etc.
but from the forward, presumably by someone Block agrees with: "Anyone who wanted to build a new interstate would face the huge task of buying up land crossing perhaps hundreds of miles. Widening existing highways would be more likely."
So private providers will build new highways, except they wont.

Another issue: if all these private roadbuilders are going to build new roads so I can choose fast/safe fast/dangerous slow/safe middle/middle etc, where are they going to be built? Right next to each other, on top of each other? Are there going to be five highways to my city and five streets to my house? No. Space and cost simply wont permit it. There simply won't be many of those choices, as the market size for the choice will not support the required premiums for upkeep. I will not be able to have such grand choice because pure economics won't allow building that many highways. So I won't have five choices, I'll have maybe 2. What if I don't want fast/dangerous and turtle speed/safe? Most likely I'll get just one, middle/middle, the WalMart of highways, catering to the lowest common denominator, no one will really like it but not enough people will hate it enough to pay for any alternative.

There are so many more basic issues I won't go on.