Gravel roads do have some benefits in that they:
- reduce city expenses and taxes
- reduce vehicular speeds
- reduce vehicle accidents
- reduce injuries and deaths caused by vehicle accidents
- reduce use of and reliance upon petroleum, both in the production of the roads and in the slower, more efficient, speed of cars
- reduce roadway noise
- encourage alternate forms of transportation

Are gravel roads inconvenient? Certainly. Could they cut down on the 40,000 US roadway deaths each year? Absolutely. For me, that’s an inconvenience I would happily embrance for “the common good”.

Lastly, if readers click on the article’s link to Mr’s Clinton “common good” statement, they will find that she was addressing affluent individuals and referring specifically to eliminating some tax cuts that had been particuarly beneficial to the wealthy. While it was certainly a left-wing comment, it was not the sweeping marxist statement that the author implies.