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"Public good" is a term of art in economics which means a good is both non-excludable (it is impractical to control who benefits from it) and non-rivalrous (one
by silotis 9mo ago
"Public good" is a term of art in economics which means a good is both non-excludable (it is impractical to control who benefits from it) and non-rivalrous (one person benefiting does not prevent others from also benefiting).
Roads are clearly rivalrous and while it's often impractical to prevent non-payers from entering a toll road, one can certainly record them and met penalties after the fact to discourage it.
So no, roads are not a public good.
- DangitBobby 9mo agoIf roads are "rivalrous" then so is literally everything else.
- silotis 9mo agoRoads are rivalrous because too many people using them causes a traffic jam. Seriously go read the Wikipedia article on the subject.
- DangitBobby 9mo agoParks, stadiums, etc famously have infinite capacity.
- JumpCrisscross 9mo ago> roads are not a public good You’re both right. Roads can be an impure public good. At low traffic loading, they are not rivalrous and can be modelled as a public good. At high traffic loading they become rivalrous and thus closer to a common-pool resource. If roads are made excludable, they resemble a club or even private group.