[jcizzle]

By this notion, I should get free tickets to all college football games. And my driver's license registration should also be free, don't my taxes already go to paying for the DMV? Wait, should anything that is even remotely funded by taxpayer dollars now be free for everyone that pays taxes?

[biehl]

Yes, if all of those things were non-rivalrous, and had neglible marginal cost.

[ikeboy]

So no tolls on non full roads?

[aeorgnoieang]

There are expenses involved in using a road even when it's not full.

[ikeboy]

Like what? What costs more if the road has a single additional car?

[monocasa]

The additional wear on the road.

[unfamiliar]

In the UK we have only a few toll roads, and they are optional. So yes, it is entirely possible to have a road system functioning without tolls.

[ikeboy]

That's not relevant. Of course there are multiple ways to fund something. You can pay higher taxes upfront, or pay less and have the users fund it.

The question was whether tolls are inherently immoral.

[ensignavenger]

Not for non-commercial traffic under a set weight limit. Toll roads are the devil.

[HillRat]

It's more like a private company has bought the only access road to a public park and is now charging you to get there.

[p4bl0]

> It's more like a private company has privatized at no expenses the only access road to a public park and is now charging you to get there.

FTFY.

[chias]

This sort of thing happens a lot in California -- all beach land is public property, but the private land that controls access to said beach can impose arbitrary restrictions.

[loceng]

If say 100% of college costs were covered by a general tax base then perhaps everyone should actually get the right to a ticket/seat. If then say you're not into football then you could sell that ticket to someone who loves football. There are more nuances to figure than this, though the concept does make sense and perhaps allows for more fairness. Imagine it takes 3 years of football games to give every person in the country a seat at a game. Not all games are going to be equally in demand, and not all seats are equal, and not everyone will want to go to a football game - while others would love to go to all of them. Those are enough conditions for good supply demand market economics. The road system is a little more complex.

[Zigurd]

Why not? First tier college football is incompatible with the mission of public universities, and fees are mostly regressive taxation. You are assuming the status quo is good and right.

[chombier]

Not quite, because in your examples the producer and consumer are different, whereas researchers are to a large extent the main consumers of the knowledge they (as a whole) produce.