[wplug] Taxes

[terry mcintyre]

--- Bryon Gill <bgtrio at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> My point remains though, there's lots of worthwhile
> government spending that creates more public wealth
> than it consumes (like roads), or addresses critical
> needs that the market neglects.  In many ways the
> Internet, and access to it, is not so different from
> public roads.

Oddly enough, corporations have already managed to
spend vast sums building out the internet, We may
complain that we don't yet have "enough", but us
oldtimers can't help but be delighted at the amazing
progress from the days of 300 baud accoustic couplers
to the megabit speeds over cable and fiber and dsl -
if  we just let the market continue to work, we'll be
doing even better in another ten years.

Maybe roads are more like the internet than we
imagine? We already had transcontinental roads before
the federal government got involved during the
Eisenhower administration. The original motivation was
not to "stimulate commerce", it was to make sure that
the roads were adequate for wartime mobilization.

When you consider the amazing congestion and
deteriorating quality of the government-owned and
-operated roads, you can't help but wonder if the
private sector could do better.



Terry McIntyre &lt;terrymcintyre at yahoo.com&gt;

“Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.”

Benjamin Disraeli, Speech in the House of Commons [June 15, 1874]


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