[Olog-hai]

California did have private sector tolling for roadways before the government decided to take over all of the roads. Might have been late 19^th century, but the government did not take over a model that was failing. And no, there is no monopoly on right of way in such cases any more than an individual railroad monopolizes its right of way—that is a false argument that attempts to distract from the actual monopoly that government-owned roads is, along with government-owned airport infrastructure.

Surface transportation infrastructure did not start in the hands of the government at all. Even with the abuse of the Postal Clause. But socialists always aim for it to be. That is why it is canonized by the left as the Sixth Plank of Communism:

“Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.” (German original omits “communication”.

So I have no problem opposing state monopolies of transportation infrastructure. The left was always out to centralize the railroads due to their independence and success as fully private concerns; they almost succeeded when Woodrow Wilson took over all the railroads under the USRA (reversed by his successor), they almost succeeded again when they regulated and taxed the railroads out of business after WWII as well as “competed” with them via their monopoly on road and air, resulting in Amtrak and Conrail; and they are almost succeeding again even in spite of deregulation on the rail freight side (we are down to just five Class 1 railroads these days, down from about 127 in 1950 and about 40 in 1980). Please try to refrain from proof by assertion, with all due respect.

[BobL]

I guess I’ll let others decide if there is a practical way we can have 10 roadways competing against each other between New York and Chicago, or 10 airlines competing against each other serving those cities. I’ve only seen competition among airlines...never among highways, but maybe there’s some way to have highways compete...