Sunstein Seriously Injured as Car Plows Into Him; Block Sends Him a Note on Highway Safety

Cass Sunstein was seriously injured when he was hit by a car while walking on a snowy night in Concord, Massachusetts.

He suffered a concussion and four broken bones in his back. He wrote about the accident in his regular Bloomberg column and went on to call for "a little help from Washington" to launch a highway-safety revolution.

I asked Dr. Walter Block to respond to the column, below is his open letter to Sunstein:

Dear Prof. Sunstein:

You quite properly inveigh against the management of the U.S. highway system. It reliably kills some 30,000 to 40,000 people per year, for more than the last few decades. This institution is entirely, wholly in the hands of government. Do you ever think of any free enterprise alternatives? You do not.

Perhaps, then, you might benefit from doing just that. If you are at all interested in doing so, let me know, and I'll send you a free copy of this book, where I explore how laissez faire capitalism, coupled with private property rights, might well drastically reduce this horrid death toll on our highways. As an added benefit, this institution will also radically decrease traffic congestion:

Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute
Yours truly,

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business                
Loyola University New Orleans