Political Crossfire Forums

back to the thing at hand, i think governments should lease out their infrastructure for set times (like 100 years) to have private entities service them, and this includes parks. this could also be done with roads to help maintain them, while giving governments a cash injection now when they sell the rights to maintain the area. a lease, with various agreements stipulated in it, keeps it in government hands, but leverages private entities who are motivated to make a profit instead of having DMV workers everywhere

Exactly. When you have public funds build infrastructure and then sell it off, you are asking the government to perform a very complex valuation analysis in order to get the proper price for it. Government rarely get this right. Chicago did the same thing, sold off it's parking spots for BILLIONS less than they are actually worth. Infrastructure is a monopoly business which is why its left to the government. Otherwise, the road operator KNOWS you have to use the road, and charges whatever it wants.

The actual money is in property. Governments give this shit away or (as i just said above), rarely value it properly. Infrastructure projects linked to the value of the property around the infrastructure ALWAYS turn a profit. Look at the MTR in Hong Kong. Very profitable because they essentially buy to take land, build a rail line to it, and then charge developers who want to build as there in order to pay back the cost of the rail line. This is how the financial district here was built as well. Private developers given what is essentially subsidised land to develop, provided they pay some or all of the infrastructure.

People need to realise some infrastructure is profitable and some is not. One should subsidise the other. Rail rarely turns a profit but is absolutely necessary in some places due to congestion reasons. It should be funded by taxes on the accompany land which rises in value, or by selling/developing profit near it which is higher in value. Roads pay for themselves if you put tolls on them, that's not a complex problem, the issue is that people are used to having roads completely subsidised but that's actually very inefficient and always leads to a shortage and traffic. Airports and ports will turn a profit, the issue is just NIMBYS. Parks will never turn a profit and as rabid a capitalist as I am, you should be sent to the guillotine for thinking about leasing parks to some shitcorporation to save everyone 2 cents in taxes.

This article also shows that public land brings certain benefits that you cannot get through the private market. If land is not in government hands, a private owner can stop you from protesting there. Or from taking pictures, or napping, or doing anything that might be considered anti-social. When all the land is controlled by these people, where will the protesters go? You can't put a monetary value on things like that.

It all comes back to our affairs starting to be influenced by the concept of finite. There will never be infinite participation in a finite market/economy, even the finite global market/economy.
So how much can places like L.A or San Fran absorb before it just gets really bad? And its not just limited to them, its nation wide. If more prisons is the answer, then WE SUCK!!

Cities are nice to visit sometimes.

While public spaces often make a splash, its usually not devoid of a big splash in the budget as well. Maintaining said public space rarely has any resemblance of efficiency and the rot generally sets in shortly after the unveiling. There are some exceptions, but since there is a lower grade of individuals steering these spaces, even the best cases wouldnt hold a candle to a competently operated private space. Finally, the great cities in human history are built on the rocket of free market capitalism, and as the pillars of that system are dismantled, it has proven in nearly every case that those cities fall to ruin. The roads and surrounding environment, happiness, hope, etc are in direct relation to how close said city is to a free market.