zlacker

There are lots of things that the government will do when individual market participants don't have market incentives. In the US, the Interstate Highway System and rural electrification are two examples. Even the Transcontinental Railroad required the government to incentivize its development through land grants and so on. Governments and markets operate by different mechanisms.

>>stvltv+(OP)
> Governments and markets operate by different mechanisms.

They do, indeed. While not all mechanisms are the same, the particular mechanism we are talking about is ultimately the same.