> determine a class of things that should be publicly funded. No. That is a misunderstanding. The concept allows the possibility that the standard competitive

> determine a class of things that should be publicly funded. No. That is a misunderstanding. The concept allows the possibility that the standard competitive market price discovery mechanism is not going to lead to the optimal level of production of some goods and services. The word "optimal" here is in the usual sense of maximization _subject to constraints_. Even if we all agree that something is a "public good" in the economics sense (therefore, the market mechanism will not be able to provide the optimal level), it is not a foregone conclusion that a government bureaucracy will be able to provide anywhere close to the optimum. For that, they would have to discover the "true social benefits" and "true social costs" created by each additional unit produced. That process is subject to usual political processes and the outcome is determined by who owns the politicians.