Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

a1 either market or non-market -- means of providing
such services.
After an extensive search for goods that are inherently
public or collective, ranging from insect cont
r 0 1 top 0 I ice pro t e c t ion, co u r t s, pa r ks, r 0 ads and
eve n nat ion a Ide fen s e, e conom i s t Kennet h Go I din con ­
c 1 ude d t hat ff caseaf t e r cas e, a 1thoug h in i t i a 1 I Y P Iausible
has failed to fit the framework of public goods
theory." The evidence suggests, he continued,
that we are not faced with a set of goods
and services which have the inherent charact
e r i s tic s 0 f pub 1 i ego 0 d s • Ra ther, we are
faced with an unavoidable choice regarding
eve r y goo d 0 r s e r vic e: s ha lIeve r yon e ha ve
e qua I ace esst 0 the s e r vice (i n wh i c h ca s e
the s e r vice will bes i milart0 a pu b I i c good)
or shall the service be available selective­
1y: t 0 s 0 me, but no t too the r s ? In pr a ct
ice, publ i c goods theory is often used in
such a way that one overlooks this important
cho ice problem. Often it is suggested that a
c e r t a ins e r vic e i s a pub lie good. And on ce
this suggestion is made, it is usually
assumed that the service must be equally
available to everyone. But this is seriously
misleading as, in general, equal access to
government services is neither necessary nor
efficient.(81)
Lighthouses, Goldin points out, are often considered
a "textbook example" of a public good, simply
because "economists cannot imagine a method of exclusion."
But lighthouse owners have been routinely doing
the unimaginabLe for years. Since lighthouse users
mus tal so be harbor users, one method has been to make
harbor use contingent upon the payment of lighthouse
fee s. A I I t his pro ves, Go I din dry I y r ema r ks, "i s t hat
economists are less imaginative than lighthousekeepers."(82)
And insect control is also often classified
as a public good, which generally means that the local
government must hire an airplane or a fleet of trucks
to spray the entire city. But, Goldin notes, there are
actually a plethora of alternatives to such a policy.
For example, it can simply be left up to each citizen
to bu y his own chemi ca I s and spray his own yard. "Although
this may be more costly than airplane spraying,"
he says, "efficiency does not depend on costs alone.
Hand spraying allows greater diversity in chemicals,
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