Quote:
Originally Posted by galleryseek
Think of it this way..
Who builds the roads, bridges, fights fires, protects us from bad people, ensures justice, etc..? These are all currently public functions paid for via taxes, but who ultimately carries out these actions? People.
In a voluntary society, people still exist and people still solve problems. It's solved through the free market. And please don't make the claim that the free market is what we have now, or is what caused the housing bubble. We don't have a free market and haven't had one for a long time.
Getting back on point, the free market would employ all of those same people, except in a competitive market environment; which is a better system, because competition creates innovation, better quality and better pricing for every budget.. whereas government sponsored monopolies funded by tax dollars don't have the threat of competition, thus lack that drive to succeed, as their success is ensured.
|
First off, don't misunderstand me. I feel the government is way too big and I also think most things handled by the government are bloated, corrupt and don't work nearly as well as they could otherwise. However, I see some things as being necessary evils.
Let's take fire and police for example. If I pick up the phone and dial 911 because my house is on fire they will come and put it out. They don't ask if I have paid any dues, the don't ask me where I live who my contracted fire department is. They just show up and put the fire out. If my calls is for police help because someone is trying to break my door down, the cops don't first look me up and make sure I am a member who is current on my dues, they just show up and help me. If those two things were left up to the free market we could easily end up with a system where there were multiple competing groups. Maybe they would all come running, put my house out and bill me for it. Maybe I would have to choose one and pay them for the service and if that one happened to be busy, well, I'm screwed. The same with police. When you look back at times it the 1700's and 1800's where much of this stuff was free market and privately ran it was a hugely corrupt business. I just can't see how something like that could be run in a free market, privately run way that still assured that everyone had service and that service was good.
I could see a system where roads were privately handled, but there you would have one of two things occurring. You would either have to tax everyone in a particular area to get the money and then hire a company to build the roads/bridges in your city or you would have to make them all toll roads and let companies control certain sections of the roadways/bridges and charge a fee to go on them. There is a huge downside to that.First, if you went with the idea that everyone in the area split the cost those that lived near bridges and freeways would have to pay a ton more than those who live out in small towns. If you let private companies own the roads and charge there is no way to control the cost because, in a way, they hold you hostage. It could turn the roadway system of this country into a giant cluster fuck.
I think when it comes to some things like roads, fire, police, putting them in the hands of private companies and letting them run them as for profit businesses would be a very bad idea.