Quote from: forever on December 27, 2010, 05:05:27 PM

Government does a terrible job of providing public services such as roads and sidewalks.

*snip*

In a more anarchist society this issue would have been resolved within weeks. One possible scenario: Since the parents care passionately about this issue, they all would have chipped in and purchased the street and run it as a cooperative where they can set their own rules. Ok, there are now a handful of commuters who can no longer take the shortest path to their workplace at a high speed, but do they really care enough about losing 10 seconds commute time to purchase back the street (among themselves) at an even higher price than the concerned parents are prepared to pay?

If you have strongly local government that is accountable to the citizens and represents a small constituency, this also tends to not be a big issue either. Small governments representing relatively few people can be impacted by the opinions of just a few people and can get things done.

Where I live, neighborhoods can form "private" associations to build things like streets, sidewalks, and even parks. This goes by several different names and I happen to belong to one of these groups too. When you buy the home, you have to sign a contract with the neighborhood association to follow their rules, but it also permits the ability for residents to make street improvements and to pool money together for the common good. I've seen neighborhood parks get built, and really good neighborhood associations like this can be a way to bypass city hall completely.

The largest problem with these kind of groups is they start to get anal and "legislate" all sorts of stupid things like regulating how many cars you can own, if children are even permitted in the neighborhood (some have minimum age requirements like you must be age 50+), what color of paint you can have on the outside of your house, or even what flowers or trees you are permitted to plant in your front yard including requiring you to plant certain species or face a fine. When these groups get a huge thirst for power is when you know it is time to bail out on groups like this, but then again you can vote with your feet if that happens.