I was under the impression that third party contractors build roads at a significant markup while cops got loads of overtime pay sitting in their cars at construction sites but other states don't have a police union as powerful as ours and don't require that. Contractors who hire our neighbors, or who perhaps live next door, depending on where you live. I don't know about middle man, the government does not exactly turn a profit, they run up debt in our name. the middle man is in it to make money, the government takes money by force and redistributes it, essentially a protection racket. A necessary one, I don't really want to have to build my own road every time I want to go somewhere. What if some people who lived along the route disagreed with his decision to build a road there or to widen the road?