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> Isn't it true, however, that everything is economized whether we like it or not? Yes! Of course! I'm not claiming that municipalities are exempt from "the la

> Isn't it true, however, that everything is economized whether we like it or not? Yes! Of course! I'm not claiming that municipalities are exempt from "the laws of resource allocation" (I take it that the "law" is simply that resources are finite, and therefore must be allocated). I'm merely claiming that they can (and sometimes should) choose to economize in different ways than would a private enterprise seeking profit in the free market. The problem with letting the market perform these allocations for us is that the market, in conjunction with the various types of entities that participate in the market, is not equally equipped to capture all forms of value. In particular, private enterprises are typically not well suited to capturing value from public goods. That economic reality is the very reason we have governments. Things like the national defense, fresh air, etc. are typically not valued 'properly' in a free market and therefore must be promoted and maintained using social institutions that operate in concert with, but also partially separate from, the free market.

djschnei 10y ago
I understand what you're saying. I guess where I get tripped up in that "model" (for lack of a better term) is that when is that NOT the case? In other words, if what you're saying is logically consistent, why can't we just make everything a public good? What's the determining factor that makes this logic work for one thing but not anther?
- pdabbadabba 10y ago
  I think you may be misunderstanding--because I did not make clear--what I mean by "public good.' I intended to use it in the technical economic sense which covers goods that are non-rivalrous and non-excludable (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good#Terminology.2C_and_types_of_goods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good#Terminology.2C_and...) not the looser 'anything offered by the government' sense. Although there is plenty of room for debate about what is or is not covered by this concept, there are plenty of things that clearly are not (e.g., a factory's widget inventory) and it remains objective: nobody is free to simply 'make' everything a public good in this sense.

djschnei 10y ago

I understand what you're saying. I guess where I get tripped up in that "model" (for lack of a better term) is that when is that NOT the case? In other words, if what you're saying is logically consistent, why can't we just make everything a public good? What's the determining factor that makes this logic work for one thing but not anther?

pdabbadabba 10y ago
I think you may be misunderstanding--because I did not make clear--what I mean by "public good.' I intended to use it in the technical economic sense which covers goods that are non-rivalrous and non-excludable (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good#Terminology.2C_and_types_of_goods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good#Terminology.2C_and...) not the looser 'anything offered by the government' sense. Although there is plenty of room for debate about what is or is not covered by this concept, there are plenty of things that clearly are not (e.g., a factory's widget inventory) and it remains objective: nobody is free to simply 'make' everything a public good in this sense.