The Progress of Liberty

Here, I address Mr. Jetton’s argument that “The private builder of a totally new road would face the obstacle of getting  the right-of-way. That is a very slow process.”

I argue the contrary. This is because we do not need to think of right-of-way as the right of a straight way. Rather, a private road owner will seek to find any way he can (while keeping in mind costs of construction, of course), by which he might build a road from point A to point B. The straightest path is often the most desirable, but it is quite frequent that the straight paths from A to B are already occupied by valuable property. It is not reasonable to expect the owners of that property to cede it without what they consider to be just compensation in order to facilitate the building of the road. But if they refuse to cede this property, the road builder could simply build around them, curving the road. We encounter curves on roads ubiquitously today, so this would not make newly built private roads any less convenient to drive on than government roads are in the status quo.

It is important to recognize that it is not necessary that everyone between points A and B be willing to sell land to the road builder. Rather, it is only necessary that some people be so willing. If Person X is unwilling to sell his land, then Person X’s neighbor, Y, might still be willing. If Y is unwilling to sell, then his neighbor, Z, might still be willing. The road would still be built; just the curvatures in specific places might differ.

I am, moreover, confident that only a tiny minority of people would try to hold out to receive a price far above what they could reasonably expect on the market for their property. The road builder will likely initially offer a premium over the typical market value of any property it buys out. This premium will be in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and will be too good for most people to forgo, as they can use that money to purchase much better property. (Imagine what you would do if your net worth suddenly increased by $100,000.) Thus, I expect that in most cases, it will be easy to build even a reasonably straight new road from A to B because only a few people would refuse to sell their property, and they can be built around.

Compare this mutually beneficial arrangement to the kind of coercion that results when the government uses its power of eminent domain to confiscate property from people and give them what it considers to be the “fair market value” of that property – which is typically far below what the property would sell for in any actual market. For an additional elaboration of the inherent immorality of government confiscation, I refer readers to my discussion of it in “Why Freedom is Free and Rights are Right: The Case Against Conscription, Compulsion, and Confiscation.”

Moreover, we need to compare the process of getting the consent of private landowners to sell their property to the road builder to the process of lobbying for political favors, finally getting the ear of a major public official, and getting that official’s approval, which will be contingent on the approval of all the major special interest groups whom that official represents. Which process is faster? Typically, any private undertaking is much faster than any undertaking that goes through the channels of government. It is typically much faster and easier for most decent people to convince even 1000 other private citizens to agree to their proposal (especially if it is a lucrative proposal for all sides) than it is to influence government policy in such a major way as bringing about the construction of a new road.

Sincerely,
Gennady Stolyarov II

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