The genesis of this blog post was a comment by my brother left on a previous blog post of mine. He had asked this question; once I gain my freedom, how will the issues of Policing, the Military, and the Roads be taken care of. My answer is based on things that have already happened, so it is based in fact, rather than pie in the sky theory.
I will divide my answer into two blog posts, starting with the roads, and I will post the second half about the police and military in a few days or so.
The Roads
For some reason the roads are the biggest taboo for those who are disgusted with the harm that gov’t does. It seems logical to most people that the gov’t is the only organization that can build roads. I have even heard the sarcastic retort that somehow people will donate millions of dollars to build roads out of the kindness of their dear hearts. However, that is completely false. Roads are built an maintained because people need them. There is an enormous demand for roads as a product. With or without gov’t, that demand will always be there.
I was born in a large housing district that was originally owned by one housing developer. Over a period of about 30 or so years now, the home builder built a few dozen homes in a couple of spots every year. Of course to sell homes the developer must first build a way for people to drive to see them first. The roads going to and from through the construction projects and to the various roadways around the area are the very first things built after the water and electric lines are put in.
The local civic association has written that there are close to five miles of roads within the development. This is only one large neighborhood. There are many just like it
Most condo-minion locations build and maintain their own roads. The same is true of industrial parkways and office building locations. Have you been to a mall, shopping center, or even Walmart lately? They build and maintain a strip of pavement sometimes stretching a quarter of a mile or so. However, due to the gov’t involvement in building the various connection roads, that is, a simple road connecting one plot of private property to others, developers do not usually focus on accessibility. The biggest exception is commercial retail establishments, they usually try to have two or more ways to pull into their parking lots. They must have accessibility if they want to draw people to their stores. If the gov’t was not in the business of building connection roads, the private interests would have to do it themselves. If you are a property developer, of homes, factories, stores, etc, you would have no choice but to make an effort to build as many connections to the various other roads made by others. If a property developer failed to do that, he would never be able to effectively sell or rent his developement because he would not have an effective means to get people to it.
The question is likely to be asked, why doesn’t private developers build the connections now. The answer is incentive. No developer has to do it now beyond his immediant needs because the gov’t does it for him. Why waste money if someone else is going to do it. There is no incentive. Larger more organized road projects are not done for the same reason there are not very many large private libraries. The gov’t runs several libraries that are free to the user. They are not free, they are paid for by taxes, but usually are free to the user other than fines. Because of that the only large private libraries today are a universities, which need them for their direct purposes.
If the gov’t went Poof, and disappeared today, people would still drive on the right side of the road. I have seen street lights on the premises of very large shopping centers, so they will still be in existance. They will still look both ways before crossing the street. They will still choose to remain relatively sober when driving.
Of course people will justifiable fear, what about aggressive drivers and the idiots on the road? Why without the police and gov’t they would be unstoppable!!! That is a valid concern. But my question to anyone who has this concern is this: there are police on the roads now, all over the place, why don’t they stop the aggressive driver and the idiots now? It is unfortunate, but the fact is now, and in any future without the gov’t, the thing that stops the crazies and idiots is usually an accident. When their head slams into their own windshield, if they survive, they are not likely to drive aggressively anymore. If you are concerned about the crazies not being financially responsible, then buy insurance to cover your own liability in case you are hurt by a crazy.
No gov’t, can mandate people with little or no money to be financially responsible. I know that state gov’ts like Massachusetts believes they can, for example in auto and health insurance, but it is a fantasy that they are fooling themselves with. No gov’t can beat money out of people that do not have it. That requires you as an individual to do two things to ensure your long term safety, buy insurance or have a savings, and donate money to help the poor in the event they are hurt. Relying on gov’t to force people to be safe or to be responsible is a fools reliance. No gov’t can beat people into safety, or responsibility.
Teach your kids to drive defensively, and do so by example yourself. Learn to assume that no one will watch out for your safety better than you.
Law, Resistance and Reality
When people finally realize that no matter what law you make, or how many police you have, unless there is resistance by those that are effected, the crime will not stop. History is full of gov’t run law enforcement, and much of it is a history or mediocre success. Of course they do frequently investigate crimes after they happen, and sometimes if they respond fast enough to an emergency call they can apprehend a criminal as a crime is happening. Unfortunately the history of police activity is also a history in which police were used for political purposes, or outright oppression. Drug crimes and other victimless crimes are prosecuted because of political pressure from ‘tough on crime’ politicians. The legacy of drug prohibition is militarized police, (SWAT units) a vast expansion of asset forfeiture, (legal gov’t theft of private property) and ever increasing violence as a response to the violent police actions. Drug dealers become violent in an effort to protect themselves and their property from the police.
Drug laws are unenforcable because there is no victim. Without a victim there is little or no resistance to a person using a drug. However, there is a great deal of resistance in a robbery, or rape, or to crazies on the road. There is clearly a victim, and there is clear resistance to the crime.
