[ExI] Usages of the term libertarianism

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 1:38 AM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2011/5/11 Mr Jones <mrjones2020 at gmail.com>:
>>> I agree with this, except for the "as a whole" part. I think there are
>>> enough generous people, at least in a country like America, to care
>>> for the truly indigent.
>>
>> I would love to think that's true.  And if I knew it to be true, I'd be all
>> for govt being shrunk beyond belief.  But that'd require more than just
>> meals/shelter for the indigent.  We'd still need roads, water, etc.
>
> Large terrestrial transportation construction projects have almost
> always been built primarily with public funds.

### Actually, there was a fair amount of privately built roads in 19th
century England but that ended because people felt entitled to use
them without paying the toll (much the same as the thieves who steal
music today) and this widespread theft eventually undermined the
project.

This is a general observation: Whenever property rights cannot be
enforced (because of technological limitations, or a widespread
propensity to steal), useful economic activity (building roads,
producing inventions, works of art) is stifled and has to rely on
either the advertising model (e.g. aristocratic patrons of the arts)
or on other sources of funding that are insensitive to economic losses
(e.g. the government), with all the attendant supply- and demand-side
inefficiencies (i.e. having either too much or too little supplied
expensively at the wrong time and place).

Rafal