Let’s not “let a crisis go to waste.”
Yesterday’s debacle proves that the NY Thruway Authority is incompetent. The truth is, government is inherently incompetent. It cannot be reformed. It cannot be fixed. It can only be shrunk and decentralized and marginalized until it is no longer the enormous daily nuisance it is today.
It’s time to abolish the Thruway Authority and sell it to the highest bidder.
Yesterday, the Thruway Authority, in conjunction with all other government agencies that arguably had jurisdiction or responsibility, allowed drivers and passengers stuck on the Thruway to sit and rot for over 24 hrs.
I personally witnessed the debacle when I entered the Thruway at Clinton Street to rescue a family member. We walked up the empty road for about 1/4 mile to see two or three pieces of equipment working. There were two or three workers on foot. The photo on the front page of the Buffalo News today accurately depicts part of what I saw but shows even less evidence of effort.
From there, we trudged through 2–3 feet of snow for about 1/3 mile to get to my relative. There was absolutely no evidence of any rescue workers or humanitarian aid whatsoever. All I could do was commiserate with the depressed folks in their cars and trucks and assure them I would get the message out that they are in distress. I called WBEN but could not get through. I called the Buffalo News and was interviewed. From my tone of voice, I forgive them if they thought I was unhinged. I was livid because this had all happened before and I had made the same calls to the media and Thruway Authority and state police before.
Alas, as Nietzsche wrote:
“A state? What is that? Well! Open now your ears to me, for now I will speak to you about the death of peoples. State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies; and this lie slips from its mouth: ‘I, the state, am the people.'”
Worse yet, WNY is a colony of New York City and this lousy Thruway Authority is controlled by NYC. They couldn’t care less about us here in Buffalo.
And where were the police? The firemen? The rescue personnel? None were in sight. (This may have been because the state police wouldn’t let local officials help, but that’s simply a law of government—government will always obstruct rescue efforts.) One state trooper stopped to chastise us for leaving the car behind and to tell us to walk single file on the empty eastbound branch. Thanks fella. Have a nice pension on me. Go give somebody a ticket for talking on a cell phone.
Another loose end to tie up. Of course, the state is lying to cover up their behavior. They claim traffic was moving until 2am. False: traffic died at 8pm. States lie. It’s what they are good at.
On why all state authorities need to be abolished, see this study.
And here’s Carl Paladino’s essay blasting the Thruway Authority (published by Free New York).
On the logic and feasibility of private roads, see this book by Walter Block.
Again, let’s not waste this crisis. For two years of the tea party movement, our critics, in response to us calling ObamaCare socialized medicine, said, socialism works. Just look at the roads. So, I say, yes, look at the roads. They are as poorly operated as any other government enterprise. We tolerate the traffic jams, the 19th century system of traffic lights, and the crime, murder, death, and mayhem only because we never thought there was an alternative. But there is.
The taboo on discussing this issue has been lifted. Let the debate begin.
7:55 am on December 3, 2010
