4 ms·

That's why... They stockpile.

• eru 5y ago
  Stockpiling is a rather straightforward operation. In addition, the benefits of stockpiling are both rivalrous and excludable. Ie stockpiles are not a 'public good'. So the private sector is perfectly capable of stockpiling, too.
  • marmarama 5y ago
    But the private sector generally doesn't stockpile, because the cost of maintaining a stockpile exceeds any immediate economic benefit of doing so. It is economically inefficient almost all of the time. Very occasionally it becomes useful, but current accounting practice, corporation law and shareholder demands do not have mechanisms for incentivising it. One of the key roles of government is to provide services that are economically inefficient but are a public good.
    • eru 5y ago
      Stockpiles are not a public good. They are both rivalrous and excludable.
      • salawat 5y ago
        They are also prone to human acts of capriciousness that Governments as a whole are generally not.