14th
Tyranny, government, and business
It’s like pornography—you know it when you see it. The streets you drive on, the regulatory agencies that make sure your water is drinkable, health care (sorry if you live in the US), public radio, etc. These are public goods.
These are public goods (as opposed to the public good). The public good is a rather arbitrary idea.
It can’t. But liberal democrats don’t make the claim that it will. There will always be disadvantaged groups in society, and the government will constantly work to correct these disadvantages.
Which is fine, just so long as to help the disadvantaged, you are not hurting me. And where do we draw the long as what constitutes a disadvantage? Is being in the minority a disadvantage? Is working a minumum wage job, and staying at a minimum wage job, a disadvantage?
Helping the greatest number of people is not the same as the public good. The greatest good for the greatest number is a utilitarian calculus that would surely lead to catastrophe if the government used it as a policy guide.
The public good means serving the interest of the citizens.
What is in the best interests of the citizens? Certainly not a government deciding what is best for them! Isn’t an individual far better able to determine what is in his interest than a politician, acting to serve his own? Because in reality, those who determine what is the best interest of society are really subjecting society to their own whims of what is best (or at least not the worst) for him. No rational person would act to their own detriment.
