Saturday, March 23, 2013

Anti-libertarian nonsense: Government roads

Anti-libertarian nonsense: Those government roads | Washington Times Communities - Thomas Mullen:

March 22, 2013 - "Invariably, if a libertarian suggests any reduction in the power of the state, he is regaled with this supposedly devastating rejoinder:

"'So, I suppose I won’t see you driving on any of those government roads'....

"After being forced to purchase a road whether he wishes to or not and being virtually prohibited from building his own, exactly why should the libertarian not use the road he has paid for? Where is the contradiction in pointing out that the government road he was forced to buy would have been cheaper and of higher quality if it were produced by the market? Exactly why is he disingenuous or ungrateful by suggesting that the next road be financed the same way as houses and factories?....

"Of course, if the government didn’t build the roads, they wouldn’t exist, right? The proponents of this farcical idea should read some American history. For much our first century, the chief domestic policy debate was over whether the government should be allowed to subsidize roads, and the government side lost. As Tom Dilorenzo writes in How Capitalism Saved America,

"'But the fact is, most roads and canals were privately financed in the nineteenth century. Moreover, in virtually every instance in which state, local or federal government got involved in building roads and canals, the result was a financial debacle in which little or nothing was actually built and huge sums of taxpayer dollars were squandered or simply stolen.'"

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/reawakening-liberty/2013/mar/22/anti-libertarian-nonsense-those-government-roads/
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