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FREEDOM_AGAINST_CARS

                                          April  4, 2003

A free-market libertarian
case against cars.

Consider:

   The "externalities"
   flowing out the tail
   pipe

   The blood and taxes
   that get poured in
   the tank.
                                     LIBERTY

The libertarian core principle is not
"individuals can do whatever they want".
There's always a rider like "unless they
mess with other individuals", and that's
always the rub, eh?

      So don't ask me to breathe
      your exhaust.

      And don't make me risk my
      life crossing the street.

      And don't ask me to pay
      for your highways.


And don't ask me to subsidize
the gas, particularly not
when you're highway commuting
in a 10 mpg vehicle,

   (Whose paying for Bush Jr's
   Crusades? The phrase
   "defending our national         (October 1, 2004:
   interests" sometimes means       actually, at the
   something besides "making        moment it looks
   sure the oil keeps flowing",     more like Bush Co.
   but not very often.)             is in the business
                                    of keeping oil
                                    prices -- and one
                                    presumes, profits --
                                    as high as possible.)


   But: aren't the subsidies
   for mass transit worse?

      Possibly: when they've got to
      compete against "free"
      highways and cheap gas.

   And don't trains pollute more
   than cars?

      Some places, yeah: when the
      power comes from burning coal.     Someday I would like to see
                                         anti-nuclear "environmentalists"
      So don't burn coal.                take some responsibility for the
                                         thousands of people who have died
                                         for their principles.  Or rather,
                                         their weak grasp of reality.

                                                          Maybe tens
                                                          of thousands.

                                                          And that's before
                                                          you include global
                                                          warming.


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