Christian and Libertarian challenges #5: Roads

“...And our roads would be private toll roads as government would  not build roads across private lands, so that nice interstate system we have today,” wouldn’t have existed under Libertarian rule.”

Roads and Infrastructure

It’s predictable. Every election, every two years, four years, eight years, you can count on political candidates campaigning on the promise to fix the nation's “crumbling infrastructure”. Those are the exact words that they will use. And no matter what they do while in office, we'll hear that exact same tune at the next election.

Another certainty: Every couple of years, we are asked to vote a new tax onto ourselves. A SPLOST. A penny sales tax for education. A tax on certain items for senior services. A special trust for firefighters and first responders. An allocation for environmental protection. We are always told that if the tax doesn't pass, essential projects and programs won't be funded. The taxes pass, and still the money isn't always spent on projects that are really needed. It's spent on things that make politicians look good in the news.

We need roads and bridges. But I think we're doing ourselves a disservice if we don't at least explore whether there are better ways to build them, and to pay for them. Let's not pretend that what we have going now is without fault. We can think outside the box for other ideas.

Libertarian Larry Sharpe of New York ran for governor on a radical idea for funding road improvement without raising taxes: Instead of letting politicians name roads, bridges, and government buildings after each other, let corporations lease naming rights. It's already a thing for sports stadiums. And if a company has their name on a road, let them be responsible for maintenance as part of the contract. It sounds crazy, but Apple or 3M just might be willing to sponsor a “bridge to the future”. We already know that pizza companies can take on potholes. Imagine the publicity that a company like Delta could get for sponsoring Peachpass across Georgia for a year!

But wait a minute! Isn't this series supposed to be about Christian beliefs and Libertarianism? Well, yes. I've found a Christian principle to apply here as well. Christ talked to his followers in terms of stewardship: What we have is only ours for a time, it is up to us to decide what to do with what is ours, but we will be held to account for what we make of it. Good stewards can be trusted with more responsibility, poor stewards should be trusted with less. And yet, in government, waste is rewarded and efficiency is punished. Do we really think that our politicians and civil servants have been good stewards of the resources we've given to them?

Can you name any areas where any government is doing a job, doing it well, and not infringing on the freedoms or finances of any of its citizens? I have a hard time thinking of any, except at the very local level. Wherever they exist, God bless them. But in areas where government is doing poorly, we shouldn't think that government is the only solution.

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