Driving less, using less energy, lowering standards of living — being compelled to lower these things, i.e., intentional deprivation, is pathological (diseased) if not also perverse (it probably is, if one thinks about it).

The real point the original author was making is duly noted. No, it's not an argument against outsourcing or privatizing government services of all kinds, a reaction against 1990s reforms spurred by the stellar news regarding Iraq (no-bid contracts, missing money, mercs paid far more than soldiers, electrocuted soldiers, soldiers possibly poisoned by insecticides banned in the USA, etc.). No, this concern by the original author of this thread isn't even against the development of toll roads (which is an obvious license to steal, many would believe immediately).

The best example of what the original author is writing about is the concern expressed years ago in very creative fashion by Murray Rothbard: Would anyone want private industry, probably more efficient than government, to become our tax collection service?

Actually, this has been a contemporary threat (and duly noted).

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2009/08/…

and

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/cf7c…