Earlier this week, I heard a longtime Washington-based talk show host — a member of the leftist Beltway elite — state dejectedly, “I’ve lost faith in the government.” It wasn’t health care or war that led to this crisis of faith, but snow. The various municipalities that run the capitol region couldn’t plow the roads or keep the city open for business. The host angrily cried for the removal of virtually every local elected official, as if merely switching navigators would keep the Titanic afloat.
Similarly, I read an article by a longtime Washington-based newspaper columnist — also a member of the leftist Beltway elite — who decried the lack of faith in government during these blizzardy times: “We have the know-how, we have the technology and we have the money and economic self-interest to do it right. What we don’t seem to have is the leadership or political will.” Indeed, faith was all that we needed to rid ourselves of snow.
Then this morning, I read a blog from a third Washington-based media figure, my friend Steve Czaban, proclaiming the wonder of “man’s greatest machine” — the snowblower:
I had purchased a humble single stage snowblower and split the $600 cost between myself and two neighbors. And when the first blowable snow arrived – a somewhat modest 8 incher – the pure joy of letting this machine do all the hard work for me was simply sublime….
I can’t even imagine HAND SHOVELLING my driveway. And I simply don’t understand why most homeowners here in the area don’t own such a glorious machine.
Oh, I understand their argument. “It doesn’t snow enough.” Oh really? So what?
Only if you had to purchase a NEW $600 snowblower every YEAR, would that make sense. When you consider that a snowblower will last 10 years – EASY – then it is a $60 a year “investment” in NOT having a massive heart attack or major back injury.
Best money ever spent.
Buying a snowblower for use on one’s driveway does not require “political will” or “faith” in government. So why does plowing the streets require it?
It’s often said that libertarians have “faith” in free markets. I don’t think that’s the case. What we have is an understanding of the division of labor and the law of comparative advantage. Some people mistakenly confuse that with religious fanaticism.
As Czaban’s ode to the snowblower demonstrates, individuals are more than capable of assessing their possible future needs, identifying the best available means of fulfilling those needs, and acquiring these means without any belief in a higher, governmental power. This applies equally to a single driveway or an entire road system — assuming private ownership.
Government, in contrast, is an attempt to violate the natural laws of economics. The division of labor is irrelevant, claim the faithful, because we have elections to install leaders who will provide all manner of services, regardless of the leaders’ actual knowledge of experience. If we just elect the “right” people and have faith in them, the political system will outperform individual action and voluntary exchange.
It’s ludicrous to blame an elected official for failing to remove snow. After all, no politician is elected on the platform of, “I will remove snow in case of a blizzard.” Politicians are elected based on generic appeals to the electorate’s lowest common denominator. The proper response to this week’s events is not to call for better politicians, but for individuals to reclaim ownership of that which the state improperly claims control over – starting with the road system.
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Here in Norman, Oklahoma, home to OU, we had an ice storm a couple weeks ago that shut most of the city down. People’s cars were stuck on snowbanks, and some couldn’t even get their cars out of their driveways.
Why? The city of Norman plainly didn’t bother plowing a single street. Ever.
The city gets most of its revenue through sales tax from restaurants and stores on Interstate 35 or from university football games, and the state plowed I-35, so nobody the city actually cared about got angry about it!
I use a Gilson snowblower, the same one my father used in the 1970′s. Properly maintained, they last a long time. There’s even a website for Gilson fans.
Free market fundamentalism is a term that comes to mind when advocates of the the global freed marketplace are insulted by state socialists, fascists, etc. There are private alternatives in existence for about every state function and yet people still hold on to the state/government even though we have the arguments on our side. I suppose we need better marketing and more time.
Guarav – The main reason people continue to utilize the government services at their disposal is because they are rational actors.
Yes, I meant to say that. They are making the best choices for their desires GIVEN the environment in which they exist-the statist environment.
When an individual have 40-60% of his income taxed away in various forms, he finds himself facing much different marginal decisions than he would if he took home 100% of his paycheck.
A man will only consume the private good over a public good when the value of the private good OVER the value of the public good is greater than the price of the private OVER the price of the public good.
Since almost every public good has a marginal cost to the consumer of effectively zero (only the totally insignificant increase in taxes or debt), most public goods are still used by most people.
That’s the entire reason the post office, public ed, etc etc continue to be used by anyone at all; all the costs are sunk from the consumer’s viewpoint.
Private roads would mostly eliminate these problems, as it would be in the best interest of the owners to keep them as passable as possible to prevent the loss of revenue. Same principle is already applied to private store owners who pay for contractors the plow their parking lots.
My parents got hit with a huge snowstorm, and the government didn’t bother plowing their street (in tiny storms, they’re always out immediately, racking up the overtime.) It so happened that their property tax bill was due that week, including a $250 charge for snow plowing service. My father suggested that he should reduce that amount by $200, and give it to two of his neighbors, who plowed the street with their vehicles. People reacted angrily, telling him about the civic responsibility to pay his taxes, and how it isn’t up to him how much a (non)service is worth. What ever happened to the myth that taxes pay for services?
a friend of mine said the saints will win the super bowl when hell freezes over…3ft in dc and the saints win
JAlanKatz, the $250 charge for snow plowing is just a fiction in order to “explain” the property tax amount. It’s not actually for snow plowing. They’re going to charge you $X, regardless of anything else, and they just add things like that to make it more palatable.
For example, I pay a monthly $7.50 or so for street cleaning, yet each week right after trash pickup, there are several pieces of litter in my yard, which the city never cleans up.
@Nate: Agreed. I can envision a number of improvements the profit motive would bring about to roadways, such as in-pavement heating systems to prevent snow and ice accumulation in the first place. We might even see automated mechanical snow removal systems.
In addition, one of the problems with snow removal in Maryland is that the snow plows sit idle for 9 months out of the year. Then when it comes time to plow snow many of them are out of service. I can’t imagine a private company squandering resources in such a way. More likely they would have multi-use trucks that operated year-round at other tasks, and would just get a plow blade bolted to them in the winter.
Just a thought: In your example, this person went “in” on a snow blower with two of his neighbors. Guess what: They just formed a “Government” (and a communist one at that!)
Expand out a bit: All their neighbors get together and buy a plow. Then everyone in town goes in for a fleet of trucks. At what point do you have riders-on (let’s call them “Republicans”) who want to opt out, or even better want to get the benefits of plowed roads without paying for it? Why should they have to pay for it?
Even in the little example, when neighbor 1 moves away, what happens to his interest in the blower? Does it convey to the new owner? Does the new owner have to pay for storage, maintenance, and upkeep (all costs that have to be factored in).
At some point the first civil war will probably pop up in this little utopia. Followed by rules, regulations, and a homeowner’s association. Next will be dictators.
My new slogan:
Tyranny: It starts with a snowblower.
Thank you for pointing this out to me….
CZ
OK, so your backs are hurting from digging out from a 30 year storm… and you’re going “hey, we coulda solved this.” Yeah, you could’ve. At what cost?
So how much faster do you want to be dug out? Three times as fast as it happened? OK, that’s going to involve having 3x the snowfighting equipment available, and 3x the crews. So whatever your county’s snowfighting resources are, you’ll need to buy it again twice over, and then not use it for 30 years. Except it only lasts 10.
That sounds like a purchase with an inevitable “morning after”!
You’re presuming government did it wrong, and therefore that private business would do it right. But what if government actually did it right, and what if private industry would have done it the same way too? Think it through.
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