On June 11th, Yahoo Finance reported that Domino’s Pizza has begun to fill potholes and repave roads. Yes, you read that right. It seems that Domino’s has become this frustrated with its drivers and/or customers having their fresh pizza ruined by being bounced around vehicles due to potholes and horrific roads. Many politicians have failed for decades to fix their roads despite increasing taxes and receiving billions in federal DOT grants. Yet, many people are afraid of the notion of decreasing government taxation & spending, asking “who would build the roads?” in the absence of mandatory taxation and government-paving contracts.
Let’s compare the new Domino’s road repair efforts with traditional road repair efforts:
Efficiency: The ‘greatest city’ in the US spends around $300,000,000 per year on road repair and around a billion dollars each year for its entire DOT. Despite this, common NYC roads are so bumpy that they can no longer be considered ‘flat’. These roads regularly pop tires and break axles on cars. Fixing roads in NYC and all across the US can take months, years, or even decades. More often, though, they are never repaired. Politicians perpetually work to increase taxes with ‘road repairs’ as justification, though. In 2015, Vox reported that President Obama requested a massive increase in federal spending of taxpayer dollars in order to fix roads and bridges. That figure? Less than $500 billion. The American Society of Civil Engineers said that the repairs would cost $1.6 trillion. President Trump ran on a similar platform and is still supporting a $1.7 trillion dollar plan. This would cost every taxpayer around $15,000 dollars. Keep in mind that those who refused to hand over the money would face the full force of law enforcement.
By contrast, Domino’s does not benefit from inefficiency. In fact, they benefit directly from completing tasks while using the least amount of money and time. Since they are spending their own money, they use it wisely. They have begun repairing roads in four cities so far. In Milford, Delaware, the pizza franchise repaired 10 roads and 40 potholes – a feat that might cost $87,000,000 and require thousands of man-hours when managed by government officials using taxpayer dollars – with only 4 workers in 10 hours, according to their website.
Morality: Not only does Domino’s Pizza repair roads infinitely more efficiently than governments ever could, but they are doing it without using extortion. People have long been convinced by the government that roads could only ever be managed by the government and funded by mandatory taxation. Keep in mind, if you don’t pay your taxes, men with guns will come to your home and they will not leave without the money or your body. That makes taxation pretty mandatory…which makes it extortion or theft. Domino’s is repairing roads without forcing any individuals to pay for it. They figure that fixing roads will benefit them by ensuring that pizzas arrive at their destinations intact and by supplying them with an incredible amount of good publicity. In fact, I would venture to say that the advertising benefit of their logo being placed on top of each repaired pothole (or strategically placed along the road if they were to advance into the business of primary road paving) would offset the cost. Domino’s is now asking those who suffer from horrible government roads to nominate their town to be the next beneficiary of the new program.
Congratulations! The free market has discovered a way to rebuild our infrastructure much more efficiently and without a single person being extorted for a single penny! Let’s hope that this domino is the first of many political dominoes to fall, giving way to a truly free market and free society. If we continue to educate others about freedom, maybe our children can enjoy a more free, prosperous, and delicious society than we did.
