If there’s an efficient and reliable way to tax usage directly, I think that’s always the better alternative. Social benefits like police, firefighting, 911 ser

If there’s an efficient and reliable way to tax usage directly, I think that’s always the better alternative. Social benefits like police, firefighting, 911 service, etc. are intended to be paid for with wealth distribution, at least to cover the least fortunate members of society (whether ones agrees with that policy is another matter). But roads don’t really work like that. There’s no “social benefit” that wouldn’t already be priced into everything that derived benefit from the roads. If government road subsidies make road freight cheaper, charging those freight companies for their own usage would make prices reflect actual costs. We could still have redistributive social benefits for things like the road wear caused by police cars, but again, that’s a separate issue.