I’m getting some hostile vibes here, and that’s not really the tone I’m going for.

Apologies, I’m not good at tone over text. Hostility wasn’t my goal.

One thing that makes me left libertarian is that I believe the government has an absolute right to interfere with gross negligence

I’m of the inverse opinion, largely why I’m not a leftist. I believe the government has no legitimate place inserting itself into people’s personal affairs because something bad might happen. I’d rather bear increased risk if it means the government isn’t the one telling me how to go about my life.

and until civil lawsuits can unburn houses and bring people back from the dead, I don’t see my view changing there.

And I’m fine agreeing to disagree here. Just figured I’d toss in my two cents since you seemed interested in discussion.

Also, as a sidebar and not an argument for regulation, I’ve owned a few trucks and I think the trend towards mutant minivan truckzillas is about the stupidest thing going on in modern automobiles. But that’s just a personal opinion rather than a political position.

Similarly non political, I just think they’re cool. The cheaper of the two f-numbered raptors I want to own at some point.

Free markets include the freedom to fail, that’s true, but can it truly be said to be a free market when we’ve rigged it the way we have?

I fully agree that we currently don’t have much of a free market at all, but I don’t think the solution is to try and counter it with more non-free market policies in the other direction. I want the markets freed, and to let it balance itself out.

Ask yourself, how would life change for you if you couldn’t take a car where you needed to go; do you have some other viable alternative?

Depends how loosely you define viable. I full well took a job with no transit options because I would rather drive anyway. Not exactly like you can run too many transit options onto a military base anyway, security and all that crap.

As for Roman roads: Rome didn’t have Amazon Prime. Damage to roads increases quadratically according to vehicle weight, and high vehicle speeds also create increased damage, though not to the same extent.

So Amazon can pave the roads then if they’re unsatisfied with the quality. Or Walmart. Or whatever logistics company is interested in spending that money. Remember when dominoes went out and did road maintenance? That should be our standard. People who want it do it, and those who don’t, don’t. Me? I’m perfectly fine with just throwing gravel into potholes whenever they arise, and leaving it at that. We don’t really need everything to be all pristine as if it’s an f1 track or something. Good enough is just that. Good enough.