Thursday, July 16, 2009
+ US highways should be privatized
While public highways are one of the more innocuous wastes of taxpayer money, it is important to remember the fundamental moral problem with public anything: if you don't use something, why should you have to pay for it? It's easy to say its in the general interest of the nation, so individuals must make sacrifices; but to do that you have to understand what you lose with such sacrifices.. this is simply, your Freedom. Take the case of a lower middle class person, who doesn't have a car, and walks to work. In rare cases, he may take a bus which uses the public highway, but most of the time he has no need for them. Yet, a percentage of his income is used towards subsidizing Microsoft (who's employees drive the freeway to work) and General Motors (who sell more cars because there are highways). Isn't it more fair that he should use his hard earned money to fund his childrens' education, or to buy food? In almost all cases regarding "public goods", while the opposite is usually stated by the politicians selling the good, it is the rich who benefit off the backs of the poor. Surely, public highways are more "convenient" for some people, but does that give us the right to take money from those for whom it is NOT so "convenient?" With privatized freeways, the right people would be paying for highways.. those who actually use them.
