Government is not necessary to build roads.

I'd like to start out by pointing out that none of my opponents examples actually demonstrate public roads being built without government. Even a private highway required the government to supply the land, and assistance in ensuring that the private entity doesn't abuse it's power. Lets take an actual no government example. I'll call this place Paradise because for a period of time it had no government, and was the perfect opportunity for private entities to take up the slack existed. In 1991 Paradise overthrew its president, but the people who did so failed to form any government in its place[1]. So what happened to the construction of paved public roads in Paradise? Prior to the overthrow the government had been building roads, and had gradually increased the percentage of paved roads from 11.1%(1990) to 11.8%(1993), but then construction stops for the next decade[2]. All the projects the government had started were done, or abandoned, and private entities had done all they were willing to do. The reason for this is fairly logical and straightforward. P1) Entity A and B are private entities. P2) A and B are in direct competition. P3) A wants to build a road to improve its customers access, and increased business. P4) Increased business will come from customers leaving B. Blind faith capitalism would have me believe that the only valid conclusion is that B would then build a road, and life for everyone would improve, or B would fail as the inferior business model. This isn't what happened in Paradise. B could choose to stop A from building the road, or destroy the road after it was built. However A could do something even better. A could simply choose to increase his business by killing B, and ignore the advantages of stealing B's customers via a road. This is what happened in Paradise resulting in the neglect of all infrastructure[3]. In regards to my opponent's point to local governments failing to repair roads, there is an issue. It isn't that the private entities are better. It's more that repairing roads takes money, and the money for it is actually a fuel tax. The federal fuel tax hasn't been increased since 1993[4], and fuel efficiency has made it so that more driving can be done with less gas. Driving on the roads is what causes potholes, and the weight of the vehicle which is why diesel has a higher tax since it's used in heavier vehicles. It shouldn't be hard to see that if taxes had been increased with inflation, and with the increased fuel efficiency that keeping all the roads fixes wouldn't be as much of a problem. There's a political ideology of no government, and limited government that is responsible for this. As for the people who slapped paint on the road, and forced the government to remove the paint. It is a safety issue. The regulations don't exist just to impose the power of government on the people. Paint on public roads must meet a minimum reflective standard, and anyone who's successfully passed drivers-ed training knows that at night that paint is still visible when you're blinded by head-on traffic in the opposing lane. Providing the illusion of safety does no one any good, and wastes both parties limited funds. Unfortunately humans are corrupt. Regardless of what profession, or task we can find someone who is completely corrupt: CEO's, bankers, neighbors, friends, family, and even government workers. This is why government has a judicial system. Though not always fair, without it there is no enforcement other than what Paradise has: at the end of a gun. Now, to be fair, railroads need to be straight. A train can't take a ninety degree turn without coming to a complete stop, and even then only with special equipment. Turns must be gradual for safety. Giving the railroads a 15 mile margin of error did give them a lot more money than they ever should have gotten. It was necessary to give them that leeway. If anything it's an argument that private corporations shouldn't have been involved. If anyone doubts that a strait line is hard to draw on the Earth between two distant points without satellite mapping you just need to look at the US-Canadian border[5]. Thank you. [1] . http://www.bbc.com... [2] . http://www.tradingeconomics.com... [3] . http://books.google.com... [4] . http://www.forbes.com... [5] . http://youtu.be...