NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/activism/18841

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-15 | 4.2 KB

Xref: sparky alt.activism:18841 talk.politics.drugs:7477
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu!bu008
From: [e-mail] (Brandon D. Ray)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: YYYEEEEESSSSSSS!!!
Date: 16 Nov 1992 05:56:51 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Lines: 70
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <ZwC=[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Brandon D. Ray)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, [e-mail] () says:

>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Tim Starr) writes:
>> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (George Tucker) writes:
>> }A toll bridge will benefit the owner if the economic justification for
>> }it is sound.  Not all facilities can be financed this way, of course,
>> }but user fees are certainly an improvement on general taxation.
>>
>> What "infrastructure" can't be financed by tolls?  Roads and bridges can.
>>
>So the investers would need an monitary insentive to build these bridges
>and roads.  Unless you have some better idea this means toll booths, and
>assuming that no one person has the resourse or will to biuld all the
>roads in an area this means many different toll booths.  Great we can just
>put up toll booths instead of stop signs.  And in staed of in taking 5
>min. to get to the store it will take half an hour after you stop to pay
>all the tolls.

Well, if you want to stick with 19th Century technology, as the gov't does,
then you certainly do have a problem.  However, I have heard of a privately
owned toll road in Virginia.  They do have toll booths, for occasional users,
but regular users can have a small radio unit installed in their car which
signals the booth upon approach.  This causes the gate to lift, and at the
end of the month the customer gets an itemized bill.

How about residential streets, are you going to put one of
>your great private sector toll booths at the end of every driveway before
>you get on one of your private sector roads.  At what point would it be
>O.K. with you for a community to gather money throughout the population to
>finance something that is beneficial to everyone?(i.e. taxes)
>
Well, I *live* in a neighborhood with privately own roads.  It is a mobile
home court, about one mile on a side.  The roads are generally better
quality than the ones the city maintains only a few hundred feet away,
and there are sidewalks and streetlights.  We have a very low crime rate.
No tollbooths; it is part of the monthly lot rent, which is $175/mo.
It is not hard to imagine such a system being extended to a neighborhood
of another type.  In areas where the residents own the property their
homes sit on, the cost might be stipulated in the deed.

>Also what keeps one person or group of people from buying all the roads
>into or out of a certain area and charging just under the price or air
>fare for transportation?  True this would colapse quickly as people get
>angry but there are alot of people who would love to make a quick buck and
>get out and screw everyone else.
>
What keeps one person from buying up all the grocery stores?  What keeps
one person from buying up all the pharmacies?

>You aren't going to hear me talk about "Good Government"(about on a par
>with the boogy man) but there is a need for some established system of
>order.  In my own little Utopian fantasy there are precious few laws and
>microscopic goverment, but we live in a grossly imperfect world and some
>things just don't work.
>
>I believe the sole purpose of government is to protect and expand the
>freedom of the individual.  I'll never have this government, but I am
>going to keep trying to get it.
>
>Eric
>
>Never Never Land is not real, but is sure looks good on paper.
>

--
******************************************************************************
The opinions expressed by the author are insightful, intelligent and very
carefully thought out.  It is therefore unlikely that they are shared by the
University of Iowa or Case Western Reserve University.