May 13, 2008

  • Your Help Appreciated

    I need a quick, reasonable definition of the phrase, 'the public good.' Any approach to or attitude about this phrase is welcome, and any definition appreciated.

    To get started, perhaps consider finishing these two sentences and then compare and contrast the way you finished them. 1) "The public good is of utmost importance because..." 2) "I hate it when people yammer on about 'the public good' because...."

    Please offer your reaction to this phrase in comments. Thanks.

Comments (5)

  • Sleepy me....
    but I am thinking words like "majority" "minority" and how it all depends on which you are in at the moment, in what particular context.

    And how much of a guilt trip gets laid on people.

    And soapboxes.

    And sweeping generalities.

    Will these definitions be used "for the public good"?? 

  • "The public good is of utmost importance because... living as we do on a finite planet with limited resources, almost any human endeavor has consequences for the (human) population, and so the concept evolved, notably among the Renaissance thinkers. Opinion is and always will be divided on the details, the devilish maximization equation.

    And therefore:

    "I hate it when people yammer on about 'the public good' because...." well, because they are very often talking in essence about strengthening their own grip on a (large) piece of the cake but cloaking it in sweeping universal terms.

  • "Public good" makes me thing first of what Spock says in the second Star Trek movie: "The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one." There are exceptions, of course, where the right of the individual outweighs the interests of the group, but I think that Spock is basically on track.

    There is another "public good" - an economic concept. This is any resource where usage cannot be excluded. i.e. anyone can use it, like the air we breathe and public libraries. This is the arena in which government acts, because there is no profit available for private industry.

  • Everything that taxes should go towards, whether they do or not.

    (for example public education is not a benefit for parents, it is for the public good of society to have educated citizens).

    I guess there are other things, like laws, that can be for the public good.  Like legalizing drugs could be for the public good because it could help lower crime (and also save some of that tax money that now goes towards a drug war that isn't for the public good so that it can be put towards something that is - like rehab facilities for those who do become a drain upon the public good).

    Also laws that regulate business can be for the public good.  A law that would outlaw high fructose corn syrup could be for the public good.  Cause then I could find some ketchup, which I love and eat it, and so could everyone else and we could all live longer, which, however, might not be for the public good because there are already too many people on the planet, though I am hesitant to say that genocide is for the public good (or war for that matter).

  • The "public good" is that which raises the averaged happiness level (I don't mean the mean).

    Sometimes it also means that which raises the safety level of a significant and demarcatable portion of society.

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