Published by the Foundation for Economic Education
February 15, 2012 | Subscribe via RSS
In all the debate over “stimulating” the economy through infrastructure spending, has anyone wondered why it takes a recession to get politicians thinking about fixing up the roads and bridges? I have a hunch private owners would be keeping up with maintenance right along.
Politicians in Alabama and Georgia are cashing in on immigration fears to buy votes, but everyone pays, as Scott Beaulier, Darrick Luke and Daniel Smith explain. Robert Higgs asks if regime uncertainty explains the current malaise. Andrew Morriss marvels at how much better we live than Elvis did. Gary Chartier asks who’s really on the side of the poor and Robert Murphy says the Euro shows how little one can expect from a currency born entirely of government.
Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
Reviewed by Lawrence H. White
Reviewed by George C. Leef
Reviewed by Wendy McElroy
by Scott Beaulier
by Andrew P. Morriss
by Gary Chartier
by Richard W. Fulmer
by Peter McAllister
by Robert P. Murphy
by Samuel R. Staley
by John Stossel
by Tyler Watts
by Robert Higgs
by Sheldon Richman
by Sheldon Richman
by Charles W. Baird
by Donald J. Boudreaux
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Comment by Jacob Steelman on 9 April 2009:
Governments and government-owned businesses always defer maintenance-sometimes forever as we saw when the Soviet Union collapsed. I have participated in numerous due diligence investigation of state-owned-enterprises up for privatizing around the world. Deferred or virtually no maintenance is something they all have in common. I will never forget the Bolivian natural gas pipeline system which was up for privatization. Virtually the entire system was a leaking and rusted pipeline that would have been closed for safety and public health concerns were it located in the United States, the UK, Australia, Japan or any other modern country. In fact the reason for most privatizations is the fact that the government has deferred maintenance, modernization and rationalization of manpower to such an extent that large capital injections are required and governments cannot afford to or are unwilling to provide the necessary funds. Thus, governments turn to private capital.