[ExI] Americans are poor drivers

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/7/8 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:

>> So what would you do if you were a shareholder in a company
>> which
>> owned the roads? Assume these are a special class of shares
>> which
>> cannot be traded, but which give you voting rights and the
>> rights to
>> any dividends generated or costs incurred.
>
> How does this [your road company where you have only voting rights, but no other rights -- including no right to exit] differ from a government?  It seems you believe that the difference between a free market road system and a government one is merely the labels applied.

There are all sorts of legal instruments like this in the free market
capitalist world: preference shares, convertible bonds, non-voting
shares, options, trusts which stipulate whether and how the
beneficiaries can dispose of the assets, and so on. In the example I
gave, if you have voting rights you can vote to convert the shares to
a different type, so that you can dispose of them or accumulate more,
for example. But suppose you start off with the situation as stated.
What will you do?


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou