Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?

Imagine if the government decided to turn over the interstates in this country to a single private business. The government puts out bids different management companies to see which is willing to take on the daunting task of managing the highway systems in the country. One contractor wins the multi-billion dollar bid and slowly takes over the management of Americas interstate system. At first everything might seem fine in the transition. The roads are kept up, and all seems normal. At some point the company decides (as many municipalities already have on the books) that they are going to have a premium lane for those drivers that want to pay extra for less congested travel. Initially only a few transportation companies and the well off partake in this service. As time wears on, people see the well-to-do and their rival companies blowing by them in the pay lane. They grow tired of sitting in the congestion while the others wiz by. Eventually they work it into their budgets that they too can pay for the fast lane. The fast lane becomes as congested as the others. The road management companies solution is to make two fast lanes and charge even more to use them. They do it by taking away one of the already existing lanes. Ordinary commuters start to raise up in outrage because their lanes have become more cramped and useless. Some people can't fit the speed lane into their budget anymore. Equal rights groups start suing the road management company saying they are discriminating against the poor because they don't have the income to afford the fast lane. The company takes a huge hit in their already slim profit margin when they lose several cases and settle others. The roads start to fall into disrepair. Their solution is to start charging everyone for access to the interstate. Back roads become more crowded because people don't want to pay to drive on the interstate. People stop driving their cars because they can't afford it anymore. Local communities raise taxes to cover the road repairs from all the cars that avoid the interstate. Gas taxes (which never went away) go up to bail out the management company. All the major US auto makers take heavy hits and file bankruptcy. The Japanese auto industry falters as well and eventually pulls out of the US. With fewer cars on the interstate the management company raises rates again to cover losses and repairs. The only people who can afford to travel the interstates are the major trucking companies, bus lines (who are making record profits), and the ultra rich. The truck and bus lines pass their fees on to the customer. The safety of the highways come into question as the management team pockets as much profit as possible.

More and more the government is leaning towards privatizing the national air traffic control system in this country. Currently it is free for anyone to use air traffic control (ATC) services. Think of the national airspace system (NAS) as an interstate system in the sky. The government wants to make ATC a performance based organization much like the post office. The problem with this concept is ATC is purely a safety function. The way they want to collect revenue from users of the system is to implement user fees. This will destroy grass roots aviation, compromise the safest air traffic system in the world, and cost you more money when you board that airline flight.