How many ways are there to determine whether an action or good is public or private?
- By ownership. If the good is owned by a community, like a park, then it is public. If it is owned by an individual, as a homeowner owns their home, then it is private.
- By its use. If the park is used by drug traffickers, and the average citizen is too afraid to use it, then the park is owned by the criminals. If an owner of a car rents it out on Turo and pockets the funds then the car is privately owned.
- By a moral standard. A worker has a private claim to a product their hands helped to create. It is a public good to pay parents-workers to stay home on paid leave with their infants.
Are there more?
Home Economics 