Monday 25 July 2011

The Privatization of Roads and Highways (video)

The Privatization of Roads and Highways

Walter Block spends half an hour making the case for privatizing roads and highways, then answers questions about it. The subsequent debate and discussion goes off at tangents, with Block giving an excellent, pithy description of a private law society to an audience utterly unfamiliar with the idea.

3 comments:

  1. Great video. One question, according to the first speaker, how would anyone enforce whether or not the road companies would be truthful in regards to how many fatalities each their own road had? How would the public know which roads are safest?

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  2. Actually, I think I realized the answer to my own question. In a Libertarian/ Anarchist society the market would set up it's own form of law enforcement and regulation. So there could be a private industry that certifies roads and tracks accidents (perhaps based on complaints from drivers or family members of drivers) and if a road is dishonest they will lose a certification and people will not drive on it and they will go out of business.

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  3. You're spot on. Private certification, consumer reports, watchdog organizations, and ultimately the media in general, would keep businesses honest.

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