I've talked about how various goods and services-- road and communication networks, public sanitation, property rights and their maintenance, immunization, and others, are best provided by an entity working on behalf of the community, funded by the community as a whole to avoid problematic incentives ( Read more... )

I followed up argument that commonly understood and maintained system of property rights for a society is a public good for that society, facilitating security, production and trade. Following up, I argued that the gains from this system are not well realized when private individuals or their employees are the security forces maintaining the system ( Read more... )

Remember when I was talking about property rights? About how much they vary in different societies, across space and time, though we tend to think of the ones we're used to as somehow "natural ( Read more... )

The concept of public goods and services seems to be really hard for people to make sense of, by and large. Partly, I think, because Plain 'n' Simple Addition seems to be what's intuitive and commonsensical for most humans-- and public goods/services are more-than-additive. Partly, I think, on ideological grounds ( Read more... )

So I went through the Ricardian model that shows how agents' differences in opportunity costs of production give reasons for trade that results in gains all round, contrary to the US folklore of exchange as a battle between Smart and Stupid ( Read more... )