Question for Libertarians

[SheetWise]

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If I have a big car I won't use the roads more than the guy with the small car, but I'll still pay more taxes for it?

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A big car damages the roads more. Tractor trailers get 3MPG, and damage the road a lot. Motorcycles get 50MPG and damages the road little. It works out.

I'm not necessarily saying it should be run by the government. We have information highways that have been built with private funds and some oversight. The Internet and peering agreements would be a good model to use in highways -- in this case all roads are private, but if you want to connect your road to my road -- you have to agree to maintain some standards, etc. -- if you can use my road then I can use your road. The final reality being that a road which is not connected to all other roads is pretty useless, so everyone agrees. This way you can have a lot of private roads (the same as you have in gated communities), but everyone has access. As long as you are paying for the maintenance and upkeep on your street, you can use all roads.

[Il_Mostro]

Except that the big backbones of the internet are not really privately own.

The problem for me is roads that only has a few users, in rural places and so on. The roads really are necessary, somehow the food has got to come from the farm to the consumer, but the farmer(s) can't really absorb the price of them.

[SheetWise]

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Except that the big backbones of the internet are not really privately own.

The problem for me is roads that only has a few users, in rural places and so on. The roads really are necessary, somehow the food has got to come from the farm to the consumer, but the farmer(s) can't really absorb the price of them.

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The farms could absorb the price, because people have to eat. Farmers have voluntarily built some of the most successful cooperatives I've ever seen. It's the issue of backbone connections that leads me toward a fuel tax. My original point however, was that a fuel tax more equitably correlates use and cost -- and it can be avoided as a direct tax simply by not purchasing fuel.

[edthayer]

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The problem for me is roads that only has a few users, in rural places and so on. The roads really are necessary, somehow the food has got to come from the farm to the consumer, but the farmer(s) can't really absorb the price of them.

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People need roads and people need food. We'd figure out a way to get both. I don't want to give a specific answer because there are so many potential solutions to this problem.

[tylerdurden]

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Except that the big backbones of the internet are not really privately own.

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Is this true? I'm pretty sure it's not true in the US anymore, but I don't know about Europe.

[jaxmike]

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Something I've always wondered but never seen answered. I know that libertarians think highways and major roads should be built with toll money or some other user-pays system. But what about local streets that run in front of all our houses. Would their existence be based on tolls? What if you neighbor doesn't agree to pay a toll. Do you have a little fifty foot stretch of road that goes nowhere?

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From my POV the Federal Government is within its rights to build an interstate highway system. Mainly under the guise of regulation of interstate commerce. However, I think that most roads should be built and run by the state or by a private company under the employ of a state. Of course I also think that the individual localities should do the same as the states. Now, there is a problem that arises here, one similar to that of the problems the railroads had with gauging. There should be some standard developed on the Federal level with regards to what basic qualities a road should have. Individual states should also adopt similar regulations demanding that the localities follow their state guidlines.