Reply With QuoteRobert, is there actual market planning and delivery of roads is the US (as opposed to just contracting construction) and how are they funded?
Over here, fuel taxes and road user charges pay for most roads (plus local property taxes).
Starting Strength Coach
For every non-tax payer that drives on the road, there is a tax-payer that doesn't drive. These things tend to sort themselves out and people are gaming the system are part of the cost of doing business. Market demand will determine whether this is a net positive or net negative.Originally Posted by Mark Le Comte
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Robert, is there actual market planning and delivery of roads is the US (as opposed to just contracting construction) and how are they funded?
Over here, fuel taxes and road user charges pay for most roads (plus local property taxes).
Starting Strength Coach
Contracting, construction, and labor unions in some states. The result: lengthy road construction that needs to be repeated every 3-5 years. I know that many argue that its practical for the government to be responsible for roads but when you look at the result how can one not wonder what an alternative would look like.
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OK, try and imagine how it would work (particularly how it gets funded without government) and think through costs, benefits, risks and unintended consequences.
Personally, I cant see funding working due to the free rider problem i.e. govt has to be involved. I would love to be wrong though.
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It's hard to say because it'll probably never exist, but tolling and use permits by road owners could take care of a large amount of the funding problem. I'm sure there are other pricing mechanisms available that I haven't thought of though.
Roads are funded mostly through gasoline taxes, tolls and a variety of use fees (How Are Your State’s Roads Funded? | Tax Foundation). Private roads means those funds would be placed back into private hands. Free market theory says the money will be used more efficiently if purchasing decisions are placed in the hands of consumers.
Free riders are primarily a problem in government run programs. With private roads it's unlikely someone could use the roads without payment.
I've never researched this much either. These are just thoughts from what I know about economics.
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Mark,
That video has been taken down.
TMPHBITEU
Yeah. They are circling the wagons.
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Ituomo, yes free markets are best if there are no sources of market failure (and even if there are market failures these may not be significant enough to justify govt intervention). The real part of the free rider problem is that the asset is not provided by the market when there is demand for it - not free riding after the fact.
It is also beginning to appear that market censoring is real and may be as bad or worse than government censorship
Starting Strength Coach
The free rider effect (not problem) is counteracted by those who pay in taxes and do not use the roads. Now if you remove the government out of the equation, and by that I include labor unions, and put it in the hands of the market, it may be that the road would be built faster and perhaps at higher quality so that they aren't constantly being halted by road work. Think about it: who wants to pay to sit in traffic or hit potholes? The government doesn't care and unionized road workers don't either. After all, you don't want to "work yourself out of a job."
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I assume you're talking about YouTube/Big Tech/et al? I'll give you that one. Thankfully other options do exist for hosting content. I stopped visiting Medium after their censorship fiasco at the beginning of the shelter-in-place orders.
The great thing about somebody trying to censor something on the free market is that the free market will respond to that demand. Cf. Bitchute, lbry, Vimeo, DuckDuckGo, private hosting, etc.
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