The role of government in emergency transportation planning

Government planning is required when private pricing cannot represent the benefits involved. This often occurs in planning for emergencies because private persons know they are unlikely to realize the benefits of their preparations. Government transportation planning has characteristics, such as reliance on investment in new equipment instead of the use of existing equipment through pricing, a tendency to solidify existing technology and retard phasing-out activity, and a poor record of innovation, that do not lead one to optimism concerning planning for emergencies. The Defense Department has relied mainly on motor transport, operating through a Traffic Command analogous to the traffic department of a private firm. A limited war can be supplied with ships and planes hired from the private sector. A full-scale war would almost certainly be nuclear, of short duration, and fought with the resources at hand. The subsidy to the merchant marine should be ended; shipping for military and naval purposes should be acquired in competitive markets.