In 2012, President Obama caused an uproar among those of us who praise individuals for their individual achievements. Sneering at persons proud of their success, Obama stressed the truism that in a society, achievers get help from other people. On his short list of invaluable assistance: government’s helpful building of roads and other infrastructure.
Like many of us, Donald Boudreaux criticizes the president’s philosophical assumptions. But he adds that Obama is also wrong to imply that it’s government which makes most or all of the infrastructure on which we rely.
“[A] great deal of infrastructure is built privately. FedEx, for example, is infrastructure: It’s a combination of vehicles, warehouses, organizational knowledge and other specific capital that businesses and households rely upon to transport freight and packages. . . .
“Of course, FedEx isn’t a road or a bridge. But so what? FedEx, no less than a road or bridge, enhances our abilities to pursue our private goals. [I]nfrastructure isn’t only those things supplied by government.”
Moreover, we don’t benefit from government’s monopolization of the segments of infrastructure provision that governments do monopolize. If government hadn’t permitted competition in packages from UPS, Fed-Ex and others, Obama could have added “you didn’t ship that package” to “you didn’t build that road.” But how could this justify disparaging individual achievement, or be anything to boast about? Government’s commandeering of enterprises reduces quality and alternatives.
The answer to “You didn’t build that,” if and when it’s true, is: “Well, let us.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
8 replies on “What Private Builders Build”
Well in North Carolina FEDEX hasn’t built any roads, bridges or runways.
“FedEx Express opened the hub building at Piedmont Triad International Airport in June 2009…
A third runway was built to accommodate the hub operation… The 9,000-foot opened January 27, 2010 after six years and $150 million in spending, giving the airport the ability to have takeoffs and landings at the same time on two different runways…”
If FEDEX wants to build a runway here we will be glad to accept 150 million dollars. Bet they aren’t interested. And they could also “build” us some roads and bridges. Bet they don’t do that either.
Get a clue!!!
How is your boy Cliven Bundy? Your sympathy for him is admirable. Are you a Sovereign Citizen also? Did you also have sympathy for Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. They are prime examples of Sovereign Citizens. McVeigh was arrested because he didn’t have a license plate on his car–he was a “sovereign citizen.” Do you recognize the United States of America? Bundy doesn’t.
Harry Reid was spot on. Bundy and his buddies are domestic terrorists.
Are you a racist like Bundy? Most PUKES and LIBERDICKS are now running the other direction.
Haven’t heard anything from you except your sympathetic support of poor Cliven. Are you going to remain mute?
JATR — Let’s put an end to special deals for FedEx in North Carolina or anywhere else. Deal?
And let’s also acknowledge that Prof. Boudreaux is correct that private businesses provide infrastructure in a myriad of ways that those who take a look can easily see.
But funny you felt the need to move beyond the policy issue to suggest that I’m a racist and perhaps a terrorist, too. Do you have some example of racist or terroristic behavior on my part? No. Just a intellectually bankrupt smear effort from someone I had hoped would have more confidence in his own position than to stoop to that.
Oh, well.
The point of my “The Tiny State of Nevada” commentary (https://thisiscommonsense.org////2014/04/18/the-tiny-state-of-nevada/ which you chose not to comment on, but to instead comment here) is that the federal government controls far too much land, esp. in the western states.
You are correct that I expressed my sympathy for the individual landowner facing the power of the federal government. I wrote, “My sympathies are with the Bundys. They seem to have a very old adverse possession case against the government.”
I also bemoaned that federal judges don’t pay more attention to common law and I acknowledged, “Cliven Bundy may be dead wrong legally, but politically, he has a point.”
And, accordingly, I urged that much of the federal government’s holdings should rightly be divested into state and private hands — preferably private.
Now that Cliven Bundy has made what appear to me to be racist remarks, you would like to smear me as a racist in some twisted guilt by mention. Of course, I never claimed that Cliven Bundy was a hero or a patriot. Each individual has rights even if they are a big, fat jerk.
Please apply that statement far and wide.
You were just lazy and anxious to bash the government so you jumped on the Cliven Bundy bandwagon.
You didn’t check anything about him just like the other PUKES and LIBERDICKS who lionized him. Hannity, the Kochs, Cruse, Paul, and Jacob. All running the other way now.
Maybe you should do some investigation before backing such a TURD.
The reason I didn’t comment on your Bundy/Nevada article was that I was out of town. But I have commented twice in subsequent columns about your lack of judgement in sympathizing with Bundy without doing any investigation.
Speaking of infrastructure, it looks like JATR has hijacked a thread!
And made a lot of accusations without much evidence.
But I’m interested in the infrastructure subject. I suppose JATR realizes that roads have been built by private concerns in the past, and that private concerns today build roads more efficiently, and with supply-and-demand pricing that manages traffic better than public roads. But does he/she realize that the traditional public-utility model of public roadway management, honored mostly in the breach in recent decades, is now undergoing a major hit to its integrity? Yes, electronic and non-fossil-fuel automobile usage of highways, which most people expect to only increase, undermines the traditional fuel-tax means of support. So the effectiveness (itself undermined by politics) of modern roadway management is being crippled by innovation. Could it be that private roadway construction and management may be the only decent way out?
We wouldn’t know if we accused and abused like JATR.
[…] “What Private Builders Build,” by Paul Jacob. I actually entered into the comments section of this short opinion piece. I used to do this a lot, commenting all over the Web, usually under my initials “TWV,” as here. Perhaps I don’t do this very often, any longer, because of a tendency on the Web for people to behave like anal openings, repeatedly spewing mean-spirited and poorly reasoned diatribes of a personal nature. I tried to move the discussion into a respectful territory, something to do with the facts of the history in question. But this sort of thing is probably futile. Haters gonna hate. […]
Government also didn’t produce the money to build roads and other government “infrastructure” either – it took it via force from the productive.
Then reading the comments, JATR sees a difference between defending a citizen from government theft, and defending a racist citizen from governemnt theft. It’s ok to steal from a racist.
JATR feels if you hold unpopular views, your rights no longer exist, and you should be subject to government prosecution. Just like a criminal that harms someone else, and even if you’ve harmed no one else. JATR would even deny the right to free speech to such people.
Just like the way the Nazi’s treated the Jews. They were unpopular in Nazi Germany, and a majority voted to oppress them. That’s not freedom, it’s tyranny.