Modern living depends on many complex systems that challenge our ability to share resources. Technology has developed faster than our ability to create voluntary systems to share the bounty of new technologies. Governments have taken advantage of this to seize monopoly control over many important functions. They promote the dangerous idea that people are incapable of managing such systems without a coercive central authority. This keeps us from receiving the best services technology can provide. Governments have been operating the infrastructure racket for so long that many people assume we couldn’t have electricity, water, airports, telephones, railroads, gas, subways, waste disposal, or internet without their coercion. All these functions will be better without the threat of violence involved, as is true of all cooperative endeavors.
When someone points out that we can provide for all our needs without coercion, the typical response shows just how entrenched the idea of quick, thoughtless government “solutions” is: “But who will build the roads?!” Governments have run the roads racket for so long that we seem blind to the many consequences. As with any monopoly, the provider has little accountability to the consumers, so we generally get roads that are dangerous and full of potholes. When police are tasked with providing for the safety of the roads, they instead succumb to the temptation of using safety as an excuse for generating revenue with citations. Officials who decide when and where roads are built make their decisions based on the needs of special interests, often steering traffic and money to where it will get them kickbacks. Control of the roads has also made it very easy for governments to monopolize public transportation, limit consumer choice, and hold back the implementation of new technology.
If governments were not subsidizing the roads, not only would roads better serve us, but their costs could be assessed by the market. New technologies can’t compete with subsidized old technologies. Subsidizing roads has entrenched fossil fuel technologies, and is heavily supported by the car and gas industries. Without interference, communities might have created more sustainable systems based on walking and biking, and long distance travel would be more focused on mass transit systems. Without the roads racket, getting around would be a lot safer, more efficient, and better-suited to people’s needs, instead of the needs of government.
In many places, governments don’t operate utility monopolies themselves, but license corporations to enjoy monopoly privileges. It is just as true about electricity and water as it is about anything else: a monopoly policy that limits competition by force will lead to underserved consumers. They will pay more and services will be worse. Nowhere is corporatism stronger than in highly-regulated “free” markets for infrastructure, and this is where some of the worst corporate abuse happens. During periods of high demand, utilities run or regulated by governments often force rationing of critical services when a free market would respond to that demand with increased supply.
As we wake up to the far-reaching consequences of government, we are demanding more options and technology is delivering them. A monopoly on providing electricity is useless when everyone has sufficient access to free energy through solar panels, wind farms, or geothermal generators. When the internet becomes a mesh of independent computers, the telecommunications industry won’t benefit much from forcing out competition. Even the roads racket will be obsolete when we have flying cars or drone taxis. The effects of government control of infrastructure and utilities will eventually be rendered insignificant by technology. Until we abolish government, we will live with the consequences of allowing criminals to run essential parts of our lives!
Chapter 6 Section IV From FREEDOM! by Adam Kokesh
I am the author of FREEDOM!, a book endorsed (I mean banned) by the US Department of “Justice.” You can get a copy here. I’m running for Not-President in 2020 on the platform of the peaceful, orderly, and responsible dissolution of the United States federal government. You can find out more here. You can find an event near you here. Whoever has the top comment on this post after 24 hours can claim a free signed copy of FREEDOM! by sending me a message with their address.
