Every time Plus and the other toll highway operators increase their toll charges, the letter to the editor sections in all of the newspapers become inundated with negative comment about the planned increases. Charges fly back and forth about corruption, double dipping, undisclosed accounting practices, lack of transparency, further burden to the public, etc, etc.

I am no fan of increasing prices. I don't like to part with more money for the same service, but inflation, increased costs, etc. are part of the capitalistic system. It is ingrained in the process.

We should be thankful we have a system that let us adjust to these increases. We can find ways to increase our value to the system within the system. Other economic models lack that feature and when the dam breaks, there is a real flood with big changes similar to the recent earthquake that has dominated our news.

The agreement that the toll highway operators got the government to sign, the agreement to allow for the periodic toll increases users would have to pay or the government would pay compensation are truly unique. I wish I could get that kind of agreement from my customers - agree to pay me more or the government can compensate me.

What does the increase or compensation cover? It appears to be future money for costs not considered when the managers detailed the project's economic model. Evidently the country was so desperate for a high performance highway system that it was willing to "mortgage" the future economic viability of the system to either a future generation or generations of the public. Not much different than the credit-card company owning your paycheck after you have overspent the card's limit.

But the highway system was indeed necessary. The North South Expressway (NSE) is the very best road system in Southeast Asia, the very best. A project that should bring pride to all Malaysians. And the toll charges are indeed low when compared to other countries.

I could not begin to calculate the increase in the country's productivity because of the highway system. We can get so much more done, possibly earn more money with the increased productivity. My own life is extremely better because of the highway. I can live outside the downtown areas of Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya. I can send my children to the school I want them to attend because the logistics are easier. In short, in defence of the toll rates, the highway is a rather good bargain.

I compare the creation of the NSE and the other toll road systems to the first major transportation project in the US in the mid-1800s, the Transcontinental Railroad. Most historians would have the general public believe that the project was one of the fairest business deals on earth. Nowhere in the school history books does it show the corruption behind this mammoth project.

There were payoffs, substandard materials, false reports to get government money; you name it. The project was a virtual rats nest of greed and railroad baron antics that the world had never seen. But the railroad was good for the commerce and further development of the country. (We can debate how much good it did the buffalo herds and the indigenous people on the Great Plains.)

So it is in a capitalistic society. The government is the main sponsor of major infrastructure projects and as such it gets taken for a ride of sorts by the elite that hatch the projects. It's a consequence of living in a progressive society. I feel on comfortable ground when I say that we would still be driving on trunk roads if we expected a completely transparent and fully disclosed accounting for the NSE and other toll highway projects. These new roads would never be here.

The same can be said to some extent for the Interstate Highway system in the US. The main purpose of the highway was military - to move troops and equipment rapidly across the country. The Holiday Inn and McDonalds were not part of the deal. This was another major project that began in the 1950s and I would not be surprised that some historian will find the skeletons in that closet some day.

Nonetheless, the financing of that project was rather unique. A large part of that financing came from a special tax on the retail price of motor fuel, some US$ 14 to 15 cents per gallon. That is lots of money because the US uses lots of gasoline. That tax is still in place and when the government builds a new highway or makes improvements to an existing highway a big sign goes up stating the economics of "Your highway tax dollars at work", so much federal money; so much state money, etc. However, there is no reference to the existing political party in power as in Malaysia. There are few toll roads; most are "free", but you pay for them (in part) with a fuel tax.

I sometimes wonder what alternate method the government here could have used to finance the new expressways. There is a price control or subsidy on so many things here. The government goes to great lengths to show it is a "caring" government with the working man on its mind. Duties on cars (now excise taxes) that approach 100 percent, gasoline and diesel subsidies that cost the government billions of ringgit a year. It is difficult to see how the economy is balanced.

It is truly interesting to see people complaining about increased toll charges and not really focusing on how the increases became written in stone within the system. It is even further interesting to see people gleefully buying heavily subsidised motor fuel and then complaining about a fee to ride on a really good highway.

Will increased toll charges finally strangle the golden goose of efficiency that the toll road system provides all of us that live and work in Malaysia? I don't know. I think one will be able to tell if one sees the state of the highway declining. There is some evidence of a decline already.

One has only to drive in Kedah to have his teeth rattled by the uneven pavement. There are other rough spots and congestion spots that are allowed to exist and grow. Plus does a wonderful job with maintenance. Their Propel crews are spot-on with their work and they deserve praise from the public. (In fact Propel should contract with the local councils to maintain their roads.) Some of the decline is inevitable; some is probably beyond the power of Plus to correct.

But somewhere down the road, I fear a bit of collapse of this "increasing toll" system that has government backing for payments when the increase does not win implementation coupled to high excise taxes on new cars, subsidised motor fuels, price controls on this and that, etc., etc. The scheme does not look sustainable and this lack of sustainability may be more important than the recent increase in toll.