The Road to Freedom: An Interview with Walter Block - Walter Block - Mises Institute

The Road to Freedom: An Interview with Walter Block - Walter Block - Mises Institute: "The reason we have [Air Polution] at all is due to a government failure to uphold private property rights, in that pollution is merely and simply an uninvited border crossing, a trespass of dust and other particles, as it were. So, air pollution could rise, fall or stay the same as we moved to road privatization. It all depends upon the state upholding, or failing to uphold, private property rights in this domain.

The one exception is that lawsuits for pollution would be much easier with private rather than public roads. No longer would you have to sue millions of separate auto owners. Now, you could sue one or just a few road owners for being bawdy houses, not of sex, but of aiding and encouraging pollution on their property, which then leaks out onto other people's property."

"Congestion problems would decrease, as peak-load pricing (charging more during rush hours than at 3 a.m., which irons out the variations in demand during the day) would become the order of the day. Right now, the government engages in anti-peak-load pricing, which exacerbates the problem. They commonly sell monthly tickets to bridges, tunnels, etc., at a cheaper price per trip than otherwise. But who uses such tickets? Employees, not casual shoppers, visitors. And when do they use these tickets? Precisely during rush hours.

Nor is this any accident. The principle holds true (congestion is a government failure) in many other cases too. Compare congestion during Christmas with the post office and private firms. The former tells you not to mail during the peak-load times; the latter roll up their sleeves, put on extra workers, and satisfy consumers."

"Let's look at private roads in malls. Some allow you to park for free, if they want to encourage attendance. Others charge a fee, unless you make a purchase. Practices vary. All we can say is that if different pricing policies long endure, then they all satisfy consumer needs. If not, the efficient ones will out-compete the inefficient ones."

"Second, it is by no means clear that the Indians are the rightful owners of anything like the entire United States. Under libertarian law, they could justly claim only those parts of the land that they homesteaded, or occupied, not hunted over. They owned those paths that they used to get from their winter to their summer places. This is based on the Lockean-Rothbardian-Hoppean homesteading theory. I estimate that they owned, in this way, at most 1 percent of the land in the United States."

"Every time I get a new freshman class, I have to demonstrate to their utter amazement and consternation that minimum wages don't help the poor, that free trade does, that markets, not welfare, help the poor, etc., etc."