Letters

From the April 1998 issue

(Page 2 of 6)

I found "Stoned in Santa Barbara" quite interesting. Small quarries all over the United States have been put out of business or are regularly harassed. There are several here in southeastern Wisconsin that have closed. Also, many areas around the country have closed their town roads to large trucks to keep property owners from logging. There have been many confrontations between farmers and new residents about land use--no manure spreading, etc.

All of this takes place as more people move to the country but object to traditional uses of rural lands. Also, it is interesting to see, in my unscientifically small sample, that the loggers and quarrymen, and to a lesser extent the farmers, do not realize they are all in the same boat and are quite willing to cooperate with attacks on the others. I write this as a trained geologist who also owns some forest land and farms a few areas.

Frank Luther
Helenville, WI

Car Talk

In reviewing Asphalt Nation by Jane Holtz Kay and The City After the Automobile by Moshe Safdie and Wendy Kohn ("The Quest for the Holy Rail," January), Steven Hayward has made the same errors in logic that are so prevalent in the discussion of automobiles in our society. While I agree that neither of these books is of much value in a reasonable discussion, the emotional approach taken by Hayward neglects the true nature of transportation and free markets. Like James Q. Wilson before him, Hayward holds out the automobile as a product of market forces rather than a product of government interference in the market. Like the socialist, he suggests that there is one best means of transport: the automobile. In a free market system, the natural result of a myriad consumer demands is a diversity of transportation options, produced not by government subsidy but by free interaction of individuals.

More specifically, we will never know what forms of transportation are supported by the market and in what quantities until we remove entirely the effects of government coercion. A short list of reforms would include privatization of all rail and bus systems; privatization of the entire highway infrastructure; usage fees to cover the contribution of the automobile to law enforcement costs; usage fees to cover the cost of local road construction and maintenance; payment by users for emissions for which direct costs can be demonstrated; an end to government subsidy and regulation of air travel, including airport ownership and tax credits; removal of our armed forces from foreign soil (an indirect cost of maintaining oil supply stability); repeal of zoning laws (which institutionalize automobile use); and an end to government collusion with labor unions, which tends to raise operating costs for trains and buses.

Most conservatives and advocates of small government are opposed to government ownership and regulation of industry, unless that industry is their much-revered automobile infrastructure. There is certainly a place for automobiles in modern societies, but there is most probably also a place for inter-city rail, urban bus and light rail systems, and other forms of transit which have yet to be discovered. The only way to move forward is to disband the government transportation monopoly, allow the free market to function, and watch as American innovation and American consumers create a transportation system that provides whatever services from which a profit can be made.

I am willing to accept a society dominated by automobiles, but only if it is truly produced by the action of the market and not by the power of special interests or even of the voting majority. If Hayward had bothered to review the vast literature available on free market transportation, he would have found a plethora of market-based solutions that include both automobiles and their "competitors." Unfortunately, he chose the easy path taken by most libertarians: "I am opposed to socialism in all its forms, unless you mean the government transportation monopoly." You must choose: Do you truly trust and believe in free markets, or do you wish to have your special interest (the automobile) "protected" from its competitors?

Joel D. Hiltner
Peoria, IL

Steven Hayward replies: Mr. Hiltner's powers of reading between the lines must be better than mine, for I can find nothing in my review to suggest that the current structure of our transit system is the result of pure market forces rather than government policy. In fact, with regard to his short list of sound transit policies, we're in heated agreement.

There is something peculiar, however, about the cast of mind transfixed by the government's role in the rise of the car, because the same could be said about many other industries and ubiquitous features of life. Try housing, for example. The government's huge role (through zoning and the mortgage market) has massively distorted housing, but that doesn't invalidate either the product itself or the defense of property rights, does it?

The chances of any of Mr. Hiltner's proposals coming fully into being, however, are even more remote than the full privatization of Social Security. Nearly all of the policy momentum now is in the opposite direction, toward vastly more government interference in the marketplace for transit choices. As for the criticism that I have responded with an "emotional approach," I am happy to plead guilty. Today's increasingly influential anti-auto movement is the modern-day equivalent of the Luddites, and have little truck with reason or evidence. At such times it is often best to respond to non-reason with H.L. Mencken's dictum in mind: "A horselaugh is worth 10,000 syllogisms."

Microsoft Words

Virginia Postrel's editorial "Creative Insecurity" (January) showed amazing insight into the company culture here at Microsoft. As she points out, if Microsoft has a secure monopoly, someone forgot to tell us about it. We know that at any time a better idea or a better company could come along and undermine any of our brands. Many competitors seem to believe Microsoft should compete less intensely now that we have "succeeded." We know such a static view of the world would lead to our failure.

Unlike many of our detractors, we realize the difference between political power and marketing power. This is not a politically protected monopoly. We can't force anything on anyone. There is always a choice for the consumer or the supplier. Any day of the week another vendor can introduce a competitive operating system. A market monopoly is never assured, as Postrel points out. There is only one way to achieve such success and maintain it in a free market: give customers products which they freely choose over competitive offerings.

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