From the June 17, 2016 edition of The Weekly Abolitionist: Public Good or Public Bad? If you ask an economist to suggest areas where the state should be involved, one answer you’re likely to hear is that states should provide “public goods.” A public good is a good that is both non-excludable and non-rival. By non-excludable, economists mean that once the good is produced individuals cannot be excluded from consuming it, regardless of whether they pay. A good is non-rival if one person’s consumption of the good does not deplete the good for other people. One classic example of a public good...