This is further evidence that the association of conservatives with economic insight is greatly overrated. This is about as easy conceptually as economics can get. If you are giving aways goods and services for free, it is very likely that more people will want more of it. It does not work that way for tumbleweeds, but it definitely works that way for pizza. Road capacity is more like pizza than tumbleweeds.
"Induced demand" (that's not the right term for it for those of us who "speak economics" even though it's an important fact to understand) is very predictable to anyone who applies basic supply & demand economics to free roads. As with rent control (and pizzas), if the government sets a below-market price for roads then demand will be higher than supply. (It's actually the initial artificially low pricing that induces demand, and any additional supply at that price just fills some more of that existing excess demand.) The issue is inaccurate pricing. But most people, liberal and conservative alike, don't really accept the insights of basic economics. Liberals don't accept economic insights when they result in unequal outcomes--they don't want roads to be accurately priced because they want everyone, rich & poor, to have exactly equal access to them. Conservatives don't accept economic insights when they might result in uncomfortable social change--they don't want accurately priced roads because free roads are integral to the generations-old American car/highway culture. Populists tend to dislike economic insights for both reasons. And libertarians who might be open to the consequences of the economic insights are such a relatively small group as to have no significant impact on most policy discussions by themselves.
This is further evidence that the association of conservatives with economic insight is greatly overrated. This is about as easy conceptually as economics can get. If you are giving aways goods and services for free, it is very likely that more people will want more of it. It does not work that way for tumbleweeds, but it definitely works that way for pizza. Road capacity is more like pizza than tumbleweeds.
"Road capacity is more like pizza than tumbleweeds." I like that!
"Induced demand" (that's not the right term for it for those of us who "speak economics" even though it's an important fact to understand) is very predictable to anyone who applies basic supply & demand economics to free roads. As with rent control (and pizzas), if the government sets a below-market price for roads then demand will be higher than supply. (It's actually the initial artificially low pricing that induces demand, and any additional supply at that price just fills some more of that existing excess demand.) The issue is inaccurate pricing. But most people, liberal and conservative alike, don't really accept the insights of basic economics. Liberals don't accept economic insights when they result in unequal outcomes--they don't want roads to be accurately priced because they want everyone, rich & poor, to have exactly equal access to them. Conservatives don't accept economic insights when they might result in uncomfortable social change--they don't want accurately priced roads because free roads are integral to the generations-old American car/highway culture. Populists tend to dislike economic insights for both reasons. And libertarians who might be open to the consequences of the economic insights are such a relatively small group as to have no significant impact on most policy discussions by themselves.