public goods

public goods
Goods or services which, if they are provided at all, are open to use by all members of society. Examples include defence, law and order, and public parks and monuments. As nobody can be excluded from using them, public goods cannot be provided for private profit. Public goods can be and frequently are provided privately, by individuals and voluntary organizations, from motives of altruism or ostentation. Really expensive public goods such as defence are necessarily provided by government bodies, which alone have the power to raise the taxes needed to pay for them.