Not primarily because of government.
That at least implies the government is partially responsible for your pretty damn good car.
It implies only that the possibility is not rejected.
But I would go beyond that implication. Government is, in a very indirect way, partially responsible for the "pretty damn good cars", in the sense that such cars won't exist in a situation of anarchy, or even with a government that doesn't take care of the basics such as providing security against both crime and external threats.
Beyond that cars specifically are indirectly subsidized by the government, because the government builds most of the roads they travel on. Some roads are private. Other roads that aren't private are paid for by gasoline and diesel taxes, and government operated tolls. Still other roads could and probably would be paid for in such ways if the government didn't decide to provide them for free. But there are important types of roads which probably won't be there if they rely on collection by the user's of the roads. Perhaps you could find some more targeted taxes (like higher gasoline taxes, or devices in cars that calculate the miles driven and give the owner of the vehicle a tax based on those miles), placed on drivers, but in addition to at least most of those ideas being rather questionable, it would still be a tax, not a free market operation.
But most roads are paid for by the state governments not the federal, and without federal payment even more would be. Also limited access high traffic roads can reasonably be paid for by tolls. Most of all building roads is a small part of what government does in the United States. And the road building while it contributes to more people having cars in the first place, isn't what makes those cars "pretty damn good".
the success of this country is a great blend of the public and private sectors.
I'd agree, but its from the private sector, combined with a few important things the government does, without which the private sector probably wouldn't work well. Bigger and bigger government moves us in to having it do more and more things that are less and less likely to be done well by government (or even important for anyone to do in the first place), while taking up resources the private sector could use to create additional wealth.
I'd don't "get rid of the government" but its important to contain its growth. |
