Government is not necessary to build roads.

It is not surprising that someone would use Paradise in an argument for, or against governmentless society. Even the anarcho-capitalists at the Mises Institute want to paint Paradise as a success consider it a stateless society for a period starting in 1991[6][7]. Perhaps my opponent is unaware of what failed state actually means. It is difficult to find a standard meaning, but you might consider what Princeton has to offer on it[8]. Simply put, Paradise is a failed state after 1991 because it failed to form a government. In other words stateless, or without government. It has since formed a government, but many parts are still ungoverned which is why it is still considered a failed state. Utilizing an ad hominem by comparing the fascists myth that Mussolini made the trains run on times is false for being an ad hominem, and for being a myth[9]. The moral, or ethical alignment of a government is beyond the scope of this debate. If an immoral government can construct paved highways, and nonexistent government with only private entities cannot then the claim that government is not necessary for roads would still be false. So I'll review my first argument in simple terms. P1) Paradise, Somalia, is a failed state for over a decade starting in 1991. P2) It is a failed state because it failed to form a government, also known as stateless. P3) Paved road construction halted. C) Government is needed at some level in order to construct paved roads. I'm curious who my opponent thinks the contract would be with in my example of private entities A, and B. There is no government in the example, and they have no impetus to have a contract with each other since they are in direct competition. If my opponent is unaware of why I brought up straight lines then he needs to review his own source about the corruption of the railways. The corruption of the railroads in the US has to do with the 15 mile radius that the government used its constitutional right of eminent domain to obtain. The railroads were then permitted to resell the land after construction. Perhaps my opponent needs to read their source about railroad corruption. A discussion about the minimum turn radius[10] of a train is beyond this debate. The justification that they needed a 15 mile radius still holds because they couldn't draw a straight line on the Earth at that period in history. My opponents source might be right that the situation with the railroads was less than ideal, but it is cherry picking its facts to make it sound more corrupt than it really was. The claim that people in government are "more corrupt than normal" is unsupported. There exists ungoverned areas of the world that are rife with piracy[11]. He can prove that governments can be corrupt only because humans can be corrupt, but he has not provided any evidence that they are more corrupt. My opponents question "How is any painted line less safe than none which is what they would have had otherwise? " was answered by me, and by my opponents source. To quote his own source: "city crosswalks must comply with federal guidelines related to sight distance, traffic volume and street width". In other words the crosswalk needs to be visible to traffic. Instilling the false sense of safety is worse than knowing that you're not safe to cross. At a minimum government is needed for order, and for land ownership. Without the government to say who owns what you cannot build, and enforce any form of toll road. Without the governments power of eminent domain even private road operations claim that construction would be more costly[12]. Cheaper only happens when the Government is involved because it has the power to get the land where the private entity could be extorted for much more than fair market value. Not having the government's eminent domain rights even caused a developer to abandon their own private road project[13]. This doesn't even touch upon how toll roads would adversely affect the poor. If I was broke, and the road to the Hospital was a toll road what do I do? Do I run the toll, and risk private police pulling me over? Do I have to explain at each, and every toll booth that I need to get to the Hospital? Private roads might have limited uses, but you will still need to have the government to establish public roads accessible to everyone at all times. Thank you. [6] . http://www.peterleeson.com... [7] . http://mises.org... [8] . https://www.princeton.edu... [9] . http://www.snopes.com... [10] . http://transit.toronto.on.ca... [11] . http://www.businessinsider.com... [12] . http://www.dullesgreenway.com... [13] . http://www.cato.org...