Focus Question: What are public goods and services?

Public goods are products that anyone can consume without reducing how much is leftover for other people to have or use (for example: stories, websites, clean air, highways)

• Click here for a working definition of a public good

Streetlights and highways are examples of public goods

Follow this link for a lesson plan on public versus private goods!

Click here for a way to teach public goods through a card game

Read an economist's explanation of public goods here!

Watch a video explaining public goods!

Watch a video comparing private and public goods here

Read a paper from the Oxford Journal on how public goods are unequally distributed among racial groups.

Public Goods in the United States

 
Click here to review the use of public goods in the United States.

Some major public goods that the U.S government provides it's citizens are Public Education

• Through public libraries and public schools the United States government provides its citizens with easy access to an education.
• Click here for an opinion piece on how American Public Education is failing it's students.

 
National Parks

The Interstate Highway System

Fun fact- 
At 3,020 miles, I-90 is the longest interstate highway. It connects Seattle, Washington with Boston, Massachusetts

 Listen to this song or this video for some info for understanding the number system of highway system.

• Original Intent: Purpose of the Interstate Highway System

• History of the Interstate Highway System

Annual vehicle miles traveled on the U.S. Interstate Highway System, 1957-2008

Ike's Interstates at 50, National Archives, 2006

Yankee Stadium, New York City

Why the Federal Government Should Stop Spending Billions on Private Sports Stadiums, Brookings Institution (September 8, 2016)

• Includes Federal Financing of Stadiums, by team, since 2000

Public Services

Public service is a service provided for the people by the government either from public funds or from financial backing from the private sector (like education, fire departments, public libraries, and public broadcasting networks)