The common counter to libertarian arguments is that if the government didn’t exist, no one would build the roads. Well, maybe the roads are built, but they’re poorly maintained in many areas and the government seems more likely to spend money on providing clean needles for heroin addicts than fixing the roads to make like easier for ordinary people. Such was exposed by Arnold Schwarzenegger having to “terminate” a pothole in his neighborhood himself after waiting weeks for the government to fix it and that not happening.
Schwarzenegger posted about the pothole situation on Twitter, saying, “Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it. I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go.” Here’s the video of him fixing it:
Today, after the whole neighborhood has been upset about this giant pothole that’s been screwing up cars and bicycles for weeks, I went out with my team and fixed it. I always say, let’s not complain, let’s do something about it. Here you go. pic.twitter.com/aslhkUShvT
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) April 11, 2023
In the video, one of his neighbors stopped in her car to thank him for filling the pothole and he responded by saying, “You’re welcome. You have to do it yourself. This is crazy. For three weeks I’ve been waiting for this hole to be closed.”
Fox News Digital, adding more details as to why he had to terminate the pothole himself, said:
Schwarzenegger’s spokesperson Daniel Ketchell said that residents in the neighborhood made repeated requests to fix the pothole and others in the area after the streets were ravaged by recent storms.
The city has received nearly 20,000 requests to fix potholes since the end of the year. Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan last week to address the unprecedented damage incurred by Los Angeles streets over the stormy winter.
Mayor Bass, commenting on the pothole situation, said, “City workers are pulling out all the stops, but not to just prepare for every pothole that is reported, but also to be proactive. That means driving around the city, throughout this district and all others, to assess the conditions of our streets and identify and repair the damage right away.”
This video was something of a return to the public sphere for the aging actor after his infamous “screw your freedom” comments during the Covid pandemic. Speaking to the public in a video when people were growing more and more frustrated with the lockdowns and other Covid restrictions, he said:
“There is a virus here. It kills people and the only way we prevent it is: get vaccinated, wear masks, do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just to think about, ‘Well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom.”
“You have the freedom to wear no mask — but you know something? You’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask. Because you are supposed to protect your fellow Americans around you.”
Continuing, he added, “We put the traffic light at the intersection so someone doesn’t kill someone else by accident. You cannot say, ‘No one is going tell me that I’m going to stop here at this traffic light here, I’m going to go right through it.’ Yeah, then you kill someone else and then it is your doing.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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