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From: keller@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Ethics and others in libertarianism - (nf)
Message-ID: <21700001@uicsl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Jul-84 15:54:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uicsl.21700001
Posted: Sun Jul 29 15:54:00 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 31-Jul-84 00:33:07 EDT
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Nf-From: uicsl!keller    Jul 29 14:54:00 1984

#R:mit-vax:-250100:uicsl:21700001:000:2520
uicsl!keller    Jul 29 14:54:00 1984

What libertarian drivers do...

...obey the contract!

Two keystones of libertarian thought are property rights and contractual
obligations. For the driving example you are obliged to maintain your
part of the bargain, as a driver, with the owner of the road. Thus the
speed limit is set by the owner and as we all live it that limit is 55.
(Ha ha, who goes 55? Try driving 55 on some roads and you'll be run over.)

Now for an anecdote.

My wife and I were driving to Pittburgh on I-70 when we hit a huge pot-hole
somewhere in WVA. The impact dented the alloy wheel and caused a quick
deflation of the tire. It was after sunset and raining and the hole was
just after the top of a hill. It was impossible to see before you hit it.
We pulled over to the side behind another car that had hit the hole a little
while before. They were replacing the front left wheel just as we were going
to do. We were there for about 45 minutes mostly because we helped another
person who hit the hole after we did. While we were there no fewer than 5
cars hit that hole and had to change a tire. Later we wrote a letter to
the federal highway administration and got a response saying that they
had forwarded our letter to the WVA highway department. We wrote a letter
to our insurance company about the road condition and didn't get a reply.
This incident ended up costing us $200 and the insurance company another $100.
(Alloy wheels are expensive.)

You may have noticed that most toll roads are in good condition and that some
interstates are in very poor condition. I believe that there is a strong
conection between the condition of the road and the way in which you pay to
use it. Tolls, being a direct use fee, seem to go directly to maintenance.
But gas tax money goes somewhere in Washington and is seldom heard from
again unless it is to be used at the whim of someone like fat old Tip.

If any of you have heard of the estimated cost of rebuilding America's roads
and bridges you will know that there is no way in hell that the government
has enough money. No doubt the cost is inflated greatly by the governments
usual waste. Now suppose that roads were privately held and that the ICC
and FTC and ??C didn't exist (or were so small that you never heard of them)
and that there was no tax on fuel and that the railroads and highways and
airports and airlines all worked at free-market efficiencies, why then you
might have passenger trains running everywhere, and nice highways, and cheap
gas.

It'll never happen.

-Shaun