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Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property: Reply to Tullock

Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property: Reply to Tullock Communications et Commentaires Walter Block 0 1. Introduction On September 1, 1992 at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Gordon Tullock approached my young son (then, aged 14) and I in the hallway. He had a bone to pick with me. He stated he had heard that I favored the privatization of roads, streets and highways, and that if this were true he was going to show me the error of my ways. I confessed that this was indeed the case. 1 He proceeded to outline his objection. Under full privatization, he charged, it would be possible for a firm to own a highway stretching from, say, Boston to Los Angeles. I agreed. Professor Tullock continued with the claim that it would then be possible for the owner to "split the country in half," something that even the south couldn't attain in the Civil War. How could this be accomplished? Simply by the owner refusing to build exits or entrances, or to allow any other road to bisect his own, either by building a bridge over it, or a tunnel under it. Naturally, Tullock conceded to my initial reply, this would not make much economic http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines de Gruyter

Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property: Reply to Tullock

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References (47)

Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 by the
ISSN
2194-5799
eISSN
2153-1552
DOI
10.1515/jeeh-1998-2-308
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Communications et Commentaires Walter Block 0 1. Introduction On September 1, 1992 at the Mont Pelerin Society meeting in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Gordon Tullock approached my young son (then, aged 14) and I in the hallway. He had a bone to pick with me. He stated he had heard that I favored the privatization of roads, streets and highways, and that if this were true he was going to show me the error of my ways. I confessed that this was indeed the case. 1 He proceeded to outline his objection. Under full privatization, he charged, it would be possible for a firm to own a highway stretching from, say, Boston to Los Angeles. I agreed. Professor Tullock continued with the claim that it would then be possible for the owner to "split the country in half," something that even the south couldn't attain in the Civil War. How could this be accomplished? Simply by the owner refusing to build exits or entrances, or to allow any other road to bisect his own, either by building a bridge over it, or a tunnel under it. Naturally, Tullock conceded to my initial reply, this would not make much economic

Journal

Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines – de Gruyter

Published: Jun 1, 1998

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