It's over. There can be no hope for the state now. Its time has finally come to an end. If you think this is irrationally optimistic, click here and watch the video. You will see the state's raison d'ętre smashed asunder.

How often do you hear the minarchist say, "Well, I don't like government, but we at least need things like traffic laws. We need a government to keep us safe"? For all those who call libertarians crazy for wanting to abolish the Federal Reserve, how much more dangerous and criminal would they accuse us of being if we actually began to publicly advocate the abolition of traffic regulations? Yet, here it is, on video, for the entire world to see, that Hobbes was wrong.

Martin Cassini, a photographer and advocate for road deregulation, has produced a marvelous series of videos documenting the results of the Cabstand Junction Trial that started in September of 2009 in North Somerset, in Great Britain. The videos, which can be viewed on his website FitRoads.com and on YouTube, show the remarkable before and after results of the experiment.

Without traffic lights regulating intersections, congestion has disappeared and accidents are virtually nonexistent. With the exception of a few who still assume right of way, drivers are courteous and give way to pedestrians and other drivers.

This may come as a shock to those who believe in the state, but not to Austrians. This phenomenon can be explained by applying the principles developed in Hans-Hermann Hoppe's theory of argumentation ethics. Both cooperation and empathy are not only part of human nature but are things that must exist within any rational being. It is, as Murray Rothbard put it, the unification of "is" and "ought," of economics and ethics, of the actions that people do perform for their own selfish desires and the actions they should perform for the good of others. (Continued...)
This article, by Justin Quinn, confirms what I have thought ever since I began driving: The utter uselessness (and danger) of traffic control devices.