Topic: [SPLIT]Taxes on Bitcoin transactions - page 3. (Read 3402 times)

Competing phone companies often share the same line. They 'lease' time for their customers.

Same could be done for roads.

I really like the concept, I just don't see how it is possible to have competing "road companies".  My house is already so close to every other building that the one road we do have is the only thing separating most buildings.  Where would the competing roads exist? Underground?  In the air?

Edit: I can see how a competing phone company would be able to either run lines on existing poles or even put up their own poles, but I cant see how a competing road company could "put up their own poles".  Some things have very real physical limitations, no matter the technology.

Speech I gave at a local tea party event:

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I consider myself fairly libertarian in my thinking and don't see all that much that couldn't be privatized or left to the free market. From time to time I will bring this up to people and inevitably I get the response...

"what about the roads?"

What about the roads...

What about the roads is so great? Sure, they get you from point A to point B, but they get you there in the most inconvenient way possible. It's like dealing with the DMV on a daily basis.

What about the roads is so great...is it the long waits at red lights? Is it the amount of time wasted sitting in traffic? Is it the fact that roads are so dangerous? According to the CDC, accidents on our roads are the leading cause of death for US teens accounting for 1 in 3 deaths in this age group. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports over six and a half million car accidents per year. A Federal Highway Administration study showed that 34% of serious accidents had contributing factors relating to the roadway. People are literally dying in the streets and yet we put up with it because the government owns the roads.

Let me ask a question...has anyone here ever been in a car accident? Been stuck in traffic? Waited too long at a red light?

Why do we put up with this?

The blame gets shifted to cell phone use or drunk driving. More laws to fix bad government. The real question should be, why do we put up with a road system that hasn't changed in the past 100 years?

For 50 years we lived under a government mandated phone monopoly where we were stuck with the home telephone where we pick up the handset, dial the number and talk to the person on the other end. And we were fine with this. We didn't want anyone to mess with it because it worked. But competition was allowed in and we had more choices. The telephone system got better. Now hardly anyone uses the old system, there are so many better choices out there. The same could happen for the roads.

The next time you are stuck in traffic, you are at a red light or have the unfortunate thing happen, where you are in a car accident I want you to just give this some thought. To just imagine...

Imagine...

Imagine being able to get to work with no hassle and no delays.

Imagine being able to get in your car in the morning and have your car drive you to work on the smart road while you catch up on that last bit of sleep or eat your breakfast or read a paper.

Imagine driving in an electric car that is charged by the road with wireless induction.

Imagine a world without the need for foreign oil.

All of this is possible, the technology is there.

But we are stuck in the belief that what our government has provided for us in the way of roads is the best solution.

It is time we accept alternatives, it's time that we stop accepting the same old roads as a given and allow the free market to offer us more.

What about the roads?

I agree, What about the roads!


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Wow, I thought I was a strong libertarian... but this thread is showing me that Im weak... LOL

I would have thought taxing citizens to build roads was a no-brainer, guess I will have to reconsider that, or perhaps reconsider some of my libertarian views as well.

Strawman fallacy.  Elwar was merely educating you about the particular thing you confessed to be unaware of.

The original roads were not government created.

We were stuck with government controlled phones between 1934 and 1984 too. 50 years of a single company controlling the phone systems.

If roads were privatized, we would go from the single choice long distance we had back in the 80s to the advances we have today.

Perpetuating the government road system is a detriment to transportation advancement and a shame that we are stuck with it.

Public funds are an illusion.  They were private funds before they became public funds, and the conversion was not an act of charity.

I take it excluding the handful of roads listed there the rest were built with public funds? 

Strange that your clearly better idea of private roads only accounts for <1% of all roads, eh?

Now you know of some created by private industry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_highways_in_the_United_States

Perhaps there shouldn't be, but there clearly are.

In what fantasy land did freedom create roads?  All the roads that I know of were created by the DOT.

How 20th century of them...lol

I see we have some non-Libertarians in the thread who think there should be publicly maintained roads, etc.  

My statement (Dont use things that come from freedom if you do not support freedom) makes sense.
Your statement (Dont use things that come from socialism if you do not support socialism) doesn't make sense.

Taxes dont go to anything we use daily.
They are used to pay the interest rate on fed notes.
Sorry.

Wut?  My statement (Dont use things paid for by taxes if you dont pay taxes) makes sense.
Your statement (Dont use the free market if you pay taxes) doesn't make sense.

Kindly stop using the free market... Thanks

Kindly stop driving on our roads... Thanks

Taxes i.e. letting a small group of people rob me? No thank you.