Economists distinguish between what they call private goods and public goods. Private goods are things you buy on your own, like food, clothing, a house, cars, vacations, etc. Public goods are those that you buy as a group, like roads, parks, clean air, an educated society, national security, etc.
There are a lot of things that can be seen in both lights. An education can be purchased privately, and sometimes is. An educated society has to be purchased publicly unless all citizens are compelled to buy it privately. Good luck. Police and fire services can be purchased both privately and publicly. Indeed, clean air can be bought privately, if you don’t mind living indoors, or carrying an oxygen tank.
In most cases where things can be bought both privately and publicly, it’s a lot more efficient to do so publicly. Think of the relative efficiency of public and private swimming pools. Of course, there are advantages to having a private pool: proximity, hours of operation, rules, avoidance of others, etc. But balance the advantages with the relative cost per swimmer/hour of a public pool.
I agree with Thoreau, “That government is best which governs least.” The way I like to say it is that we have too much law and not enough order. Yet I regret when with comparison to a standing army, he speaks against a “standing government.” Because, if not for government, who would buy public goods? If all there was were private pools, few of us would know how to swim. If all there was were private schools, we wouldn’t have an educated society.
Public goods are good. And they are efficient. If we want to improve our quality of life, we can do so by investing in a lot more public goods.
