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Private Plows
A public good is an economic commodity most efficiently provided by the government. Public goods include things like national defense and border control, the benefits of which cannot be withheld from any single consumer. That means these services are rarely marketable commodities.
But the nature of public goods is debatable. Is government the most efficient entity for providing health care, or education? Experiences in Canada and the United States (respectively) suggest it may not be.
Things get fun when one starts to consider services the government nearly always supplies. Should the government be in charge of snowplowing?
Residents of Michigan know that local Road Commissions often can’t keep up with the deep snows blustering off Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. And even when those big orange trucks clear the main highways, time constraints force them to ignore the still impassable back roads.
Perhaps the market is the answer. Ottawa County, near Grand Rapids, is expanding a contract with Countryside Snowplowing, which will now be responsible for clearing 192.5 miles of roads. It allows the county to reduce its unionized work force, and avoid laying off employees during the summer. They also expect Countryside will clear of the back roads quicker, happy news for those a few miles outside of town.
There’s one “public” good sent back to the public markets. What’s next?
