Waldo Jaquith - Does capitalism require competition?

Does capitalism require competition?

On 18 August 2005 with 3 comments

Darn near 100% of road construction in Virginia is done by private contractors, and some people (Republicans, in specifically) want the actual road ownership to be private, too.

This group blog reports on the hidden costs of toll roads:

Sometimes, non-compete agreements aren’t even written down. In Virginia, the Dulles Greenway consortium didn’t have a written non-compete agreement, but “understood” that Virginia would not build a competing road (page 13) or make improvements to competing roads ahead of schedule (page 39).

So, here we have public officials agreeing to impede traffic on public highways in order to protect the private interests of toll road investors. Not only are people who use toll roads having to pay to use them, but the rest of the public is being inconvenienced as well.

I wonder: if people knew that this would be one of the costs of toll roads, would they agree to pay this price? And isn’t government supposed to be working in the public’s interest?

(Via Metafilter)

3 Comments

I don’t pretend to have the answer. But I will say that handing over existing roads built with taxpayer money to private companies is a violation of the public trust. Our money pays for the roads and massive giveaways of existing roads (or their upgrades) is just one more way it’s on-your-ownership for the average American and profit for friends of Bush and Delay.

Posted by KathyinBlacksburg on 18 August 2005 @ 2pm

One more thought. The argument for the privatizing of everything except defense (and even Dept. of Defense funds private militias) is that competition is healthy for America and for an international economy. While I believe that’s generally true, I don’t accept that it’s either required or wise to parcel off all of our infrastructure built with the public purse. Once municipalites turno over water systems and states and cities hand over roads, we’ll wish we coudl trun back. It’ll be too late. And lest we forget, privatization brough Enron (and a host of other exploiters) who waged economic warfare on the largest state economy in the nation. Thsi suggests at least the need for some regulation (ie better than we now have) to prevent more “Enrons” in other states. The fundamental questions are: How much of our infrastructure dare we privatize. What level of regulation is required to balance competing interests in a fiar manner? And for the rest, which remaine non-privatized, how can we have services delivered in the efficient and effective ways.

Posted by KathyinBlacksburg on 18 August 2005 @ 2pm

Well now, my typos abound. Sorry….

Posted by KathyinBlacksburg on 18 August 2005 @ 2pm

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