Voluntary Provision of a So-called Public Good

This is the trouble with neoclassical welfare economics, amigos: it’s not a decent theory, but it’s a dandy rationale for government to coerce people right and left ostensibly in order to supply valuable public goods, many of which are mere boondoggles for government contractors and magnets for corruption of the legislators and bureaucrats who impose the projects on an often-unwilling public.

Mongoose

In Hawaii, in the late 19th Century, Mongooses were imported to rid the sugar cane fields of rats.  Now the mongooses are overwhelming, reducing populations of birds and turtles, and domestic cats! The mongoose tale is still a bit exotic, but the story is most often demonstrated where government is the mongoose.