Dear Governments of the World,

So here's a scenario: Governments get out of the road business as you seem to want; all government roads are sold at auction. Some very rich enviroluddite buys up a long section of a key road at the auction, then plows it up and plants trees along its entire route; cars driving on other roads can't get through at what formerly were intersections.

This is a known scenario, I realize, but there is no satisfactory answer to it in a world of Inviolable Property Rights; there are simply assertions that it can't happen because the prices would be such that no one would sell to such a person. That, I assert, is not necessarily the case. Would the world "grind to a halt", you ask, as if there is an operational definition of "grinding to a halt" that we all understand. Instead, let's ask the following: Would, say, the north side of Chicago suffer very high losses if, say, North Avenue were continuously planted with trees from Lake Michigan westward for three miles? I say it absolutely would, and the political pressure to "violate" this tree-planter's "property rights" would be incredible. The laws to prevent such things from happening would be passed very quickly. Suddenly, we have eminent domain again, and we have government in the road industry again, do we not?

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. I was speaking more to national governments and their subsidization of roads. I have no doubt that municipalities would continue to manage the local road systems, either because the roads would never be privatized in the first place or their would be political pressure later through the mechanism you describe.

But if somehow we were to convince federal politicians that such a move would be in their interest (e.g. they can sell it as a "green policy"), I doubt Congress would be very concerned about traffic problems in Chicago. And I doubt that North Avenue receives much federal or even state-level support right now (but I could be wrong on that fact).

Private markets can operate in some of the most atrocious environments ever, so I have no doubt that no new road would not lead to the collapse of the Western world, but it doesn't mean that things would be any good.

Too much Rothbard, too little economics in this post. How about we try... The Optimum Quantity of Roads (tm)?