Whenever I suggest that the size of our Government is too large, I receive the statement, “But, what about the roads?”  This happened when I asked Barbara Boxer why it was appropriate for the federal government to have the public bail out banks, it happens when I discuss political topics on reddit, and it happens regularly in conversation.  The federal government seems to have done such a good job with roads that this success justifies its involvement in any and all aspects of our lives.  So let us take a moment to ponder this seemingly impenetrable justification for a massive government.

1) Let us initially assume that roads are a good thing.  In 2015, the Federal government spent $44 billion on roads [1].  The proposed budget for 2019 is to spend $46 billion on roads and bridges [2].  In 2019, the president’s proposed Federal budget is approximately $4.4 trillion.  So roads constitute approximately 1% of the Federal budget.  Similarly, roads constitute approximately 1% of the state budgets [2.1].  This is a very small amount; we could theoretically eliminate 99% of the Federal government without affecting its development of roads at all.

2)  Still assuming that roads are a good thing, our government can’t even create roads anymore! The current roads and bridges of the U.S. are given a D+ by the American Society of Civil Engineers [3].  The federal government reports that 70,000 bridges (greater than 10%) are structurally deficient (meaning they either need to be replaced or repaired in a dramatic way) [4].  But it doesn’t take a government report to realize this; drive around and count the potholes.  The drive from my home to my work, a five mile drive in northern California’s bay area, is littered with potholes.  I couldn’t avoid one the other day, which popped my tire.  And as I sat there on the side of the road, I wondered why the government didn’t fulfill its responsibility to make good roads with my tax dollars, like they promised.

3)  Finally, perhaps roads aren’t such a great thing after all!  Roads are a way to facilitate the transportation of automobiles.  Automobiles provide maximum freedom for their riders; riders choose when to leave, where to go, when to stop, etc.  And they’re comfortable.  In comparison to other transportation methods, though, automobiles are extremely inefficient.  Trains and ships transport more weight farther distances for the same amount of energy.  But, with the convenience and the eternally sprawling roads system, we’ve all been driving everywhere all the time, spewing carbon into the air and (probably) making a blanket that is now cooking the earth.  The government is large and can’t adapt quickly, and our economy is heavily dependent on our system of roads.  So we continue to fund roads and subsidize the oil industry (either through tax breaks [5] or military action including war [6] and violently overthrowing a democratically elected government [6.1]), perhaps to the destruction of much of the earth.

What would have happened if the federal government hadn’t built roads? The picture below is of Manhattan in 1913, before the federal government started making roads.  Oh my gosh, there are roads there!  Without the Federal government making roads, people still would have wanted transportation.  Perhaps, cars would have been used for local transportation (on roads created by local municipalities that could more appropriately determine the cost/benefit of such things) and other more efficient methods (trains and ships) would have been developed more fully for longer travel.  We would not have polluted the environment nearly as quickly and may have saved the arctic ice caps.

Roads are largely a way to subsidize the auto and oil industries.  And their lobbyists are hard at work today maintaining their influence on government (and their image to the public).  Approximately $140 million and $64 million has been spent on lobbying efforts by the oil industry and auto industry each year for the last ten years, respectively [6.2,6.3].  What does this lobbying buy them?  In addition to massive subsidies, in 2008, CEOs of Ford, Chrysler, and GM asked congress for finances to bailout their companies.  How did they travel to Congress to ask for the money?  They flew by private jet [7]!  But, you say, they were employing so many Americans – we needed to bail them out.  And, under the presidency of Obama, the Federal government did.  Did this bailout work?  Only somewhat.  Still massively in debt from their poorly managed pension funds (the GM executives would distribute any amounts earned by the funds on good years to themselves as profits [8]), GM just announced that it will soon close several plants [9].  Their pensions are still underfunded by approximately $29 billion [10].  And it’s highly probable that Ford (who has announced that it will soon stop manufacturing most cars [11]) will not survive the next recession [12].  These companies have made bad products for generations; they should have succumbed to market forces long ago (eliminating the associated government waste and getting replaced with good companies that make a desirable product).

“But … the roads”, they say.  “But … inefficiency, inability, incompetence, cronyism, needless death, pollution, tyrannical actions, and waste,” is my response.

[1]  https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/highway-and-road-expenditures

[2]  https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/docs/mission/budget/304476/508-dot-bh2019.pdf

[2.1]  https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3694/10

[3]  https://www.npr.org/2017/03/10/519593247/civil-engineers-give-u-s-infrastructure-a-near-failing-grade

[4]  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/falling-apart-america-neglected-infrastructure-60-minutes/

[5]  https://www.forbes.com/sites/drillinginfo/2016/02/22/debunking-myths-about-federal-oil-gas-subsidies/#2aacfde26e1c

[6]  https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html

[6.1]  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran

[6.2]  https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=E01

[6.3]  https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=M02

[7]  http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/autos.ceo.jets/

[8]  Schultz, Ellen E. Retirement heist: How companies plunder and profit from the nest eggs of American workers. Penguin, 2011.

[9]  https://www.autonews.com/article/20181203/OEM/181209962/unlike-2008-gm-cutting-jobs-plants-proactively

[10]  https://www.barrons.com/articles/ge-stock-has-a-pension-problem-1543777234

[11]  https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/27/heres-when-ford-will-stop-making-most-of-its-cars/

[12]  https://insideevs.com/elon-musk-ford-wont-survive-next-recession/