Fred Foldvary wrote:
 >When highways are privately owned, the owner has an incentive to 
charge tolls
 >at least high enough to prevent congestion, and a government
 >seeking sound policy would do likewise.  Hence periodic jams such
 >as during rush hour are the result of governmental failure to
 >make users pay the costs of the negative externalities.
 >A pure free market would not experience periodic traffic jams.


This seems self-contradictory to me; what am I missing?
The second sentence says that traffic jams are caused by
government failure to act, and the third sentence says
they are caused by the market failing to be free.
Does "free market" include governmental imposition
of external costs?  If not, then I don't see the consistency.


Martin C. Tangora