These funds should be transparent and run by recognised experts and should aim to get maximum bang for every taxpayers buck.

The whole point of a market is that a. funds don't *need* to be transparent, b. investors are in the best position to ensure things are run by real experts and c. if it's not profitable (not enough "bang for buck") it goes out of business and someone else can try.

Of course, if your government has no eminent domain powers to demand a right of way through someone's land, who would want to stop after buying the route for a canal around one side of the offensive individual's property? Buy the land around *both* sides of his property! "That's right, today's toll for you to cross over my land is $100, and just wait until you see how expensive it's going to be to cross back!"

That's just another form of coercion and, besides, he'd just ask for an easement.

The reason eminent domain is so terrible is that the canal could be a huge failure and the landowner might say, "see, I was right not to tear down my property for this." And if it becomes truly valuable, the investors would be able to offer more money to entice him to leave.

Instead, with eminent domain, someone has a Grand Scheme and the hopes and dreams of the little people who are in the way of this manifestation of ego are destroyed to make way.

The funny thing about the debate about eminent domain is how much it mirrors the debate over evolution. The anti-evolutionists, much like the control-economists, can't comprehend how something complex can come about through a myriad of small changes. In reality, though, not one city exists where the grand plans actually worked. In every case, the city government is constantly playing catchup with the market, and usually delaying real progress by allowing corruption and bureaucratic inertia to control the process.

Of course, if your government has no eminent domain powers to demand a right of way through someone's land, who would want to stop after buying the route for a canal around one side of the offensive individual's property? Buy the land around *both* sides of his property! "That's right, today's toll for you to cross over my land is $100, and just wait until you see how expensive it's going to be to cross back!"

*That* is when you've got the leverage to get him to sell. Natural monopolies are fun, as long as you're the monopolist.

Alfred Ely Beach, inventor and editor of Scientific American, had designed a pneumatic (air-driven) system which he demonstrated at the American Institute Fair in 1867, and he thought it viable for transit operation in underground tunnels. He applied for a permit from the Tammany Hall city government, and after being denied, decided to build the line in secrecy, in an attempt to show that subterranean transit was practical. (He actually did receive a permit to built a pneumatic package delivery system, originally of two small tunnels from Warren St. to Cedar St., later amended to be one large tunnel, to "simplify construction" of what he really intended to build.)