The direct or indirect control of traffic and communication is of similar strategic importance for a state. Indeed, all states have gone to great pains to control rivers, coasts and seaways, streets and railroads, and especially, mail, radio, television, and telecommunication systems. Every prospective dissident is decisively restrained in his means of moving around and coordinating the actions of individuals if these things are in the hand or under the supervision of the state. The fact, well known from military history, that traffic and communication systems are the very first command posts to be occupied by any state attacking another vividly underlines their central strategic significance in imposing state rule on a society.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989; reprinted: Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010) 183-4; digital edition here.
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