Chapter 11

Chapter 11 covers public goods and common resources. According to the chapter, there are four different types of goods. There are private goods, public goods, natural monopolies and common resources. What determines the category in which a good is placed is the goods excludability and rival in consumption. If a good is excludable, then people can be prevented from using the specific good. If a good is rival in consumption, then that means that one person uses the good and impedes the ability of another person to use the good. Reading this chapter made me realize that the world is full of goods that are taken for granted and rarely thought of as a good at all, unless you are an economist. For example, it never occurred to me to think of a road or national defense as a good.

 It is interesting to look at things from an economic perspective. Looking at the world through the lens of economics allows a person to see how the structure of society works in a whole new way. An economic point of view helps one to really see cause and effect in society. You can see how something as simple as traffic can change a good from being a common resource to a public good or a private good to a natural monopoly or vice versa. Evidently,  naturally occurring phenomena can easily effect a good, which would go unnoticed unless looking at the situation with an economic point of view.