Comments on: On Transportation Pollution: My first peer-reviewed publication

By: Why being a candidate can be beneficial for liberty | LibertarianChristians.com

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:10:46 +0000

[...] Why being a candidate can be beneficial for liberty By Norman Though I think it is misguided to believe that electoral politics is the primary means of effecting change for the cause of liberty (especially at a national level), local activism is still a valuable tool for gaining visibility and spreading the libertarian message. For the first time ever, I’m running as a Libertarian for State Representative in District 49 in Austin, TX. Today I had the opportunity to submit a questionnaire to the League of Women Voters in their pre-primary/convention issue. I was pretty thrilled considering I know quite a bit about each of the issues in the questionnaire. By golly, they even asked about one of my specialties: transportation pollution! [...]

By: LP Texas Helps Defeat $1 Billion Scheme of Fake "Private Roads" | Libertarian Longhorns

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:49:40 +0000

[...] am a staunch proponent of privatization of road systems, even publishing an article about transportation pollution in a peer-reviewed journal advocating such. But this perverse plan that the Texas government has put out is a sham, and [...]

By: LP Texas Helps Defeat $1 Billion Scheme of Fake "Private Roads" | LibertarianChristians.com

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:43:58 +0000

By: clay

clay — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:55:45 +0000

Norman:
A fellow Christian libertarian, Chem. E, and UT Grad, visiting for the first time. Congrats on the publication and the blog.

As a frequent driver on I35, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about transportation economics and pollution. Trucks, cars and airplanes have their infrastructure paid for by the government. Trains on the other hand, must build their own roads. Businesses succeed and fail based on their Return on Invested Capital. Because railroads must invest their own capital to build roads while trucking companies invest nothing in their roads, the railroad companies are at a huge competitive disadvantage. Trucking companies falsely appear to be more capital efficient.

Trucking’s dominance in the transportation of goods is a classic misallocation of capital resulting from government subsidies and interference. The unintended consequence of this government interference was the bankruptcy of many railroad companies 40-50 years ago and the market’s current preference for a higher polluting, fuel inefficient transportation system for goods, namely trucks.

By: clay

clay — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:55:00 +0000

Norman:
A fellow Christian libertarian, Chem. E, and UT Grad, visiting for the first time. Congrats on the publication and the blog.

By: Josh M

Josh M — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:40:27 +0000

Norman, congrats. Also, I would love to read this if it ever gets posted on the site (or if I can find it at a local library).

By: Josh M

Josh M — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:40:00 +0000

Norman, congrats. Also, I would love to read this if it ever gets posted on the site (or if I can find it at a local library).

By: Jason W

Jason W — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:21:59 +0000

Nice job. I assumed this paper had already been published in a peer-reviewed publication when I read it a few months ago. And, it’s definitely the most readable of these type of articles that I’ve read (not to mention just long enough to read in one sitting). Hope people find it as useful as I did.

By: Jason W

Jason W — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:21:00 +0000

By: Dustin

Dustin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:46:16 +0000

Congrats to Norman on the publication!! I for one, would like to see the paper posted here on LCC, so let’s all hope that you don’t get screwed by stupid, overly complex, copyright laws…