Monday, September 6, 2010

Why I teach public finance

Good libraries, refreshing parks, educational institutions that inspire and motivate all of us to learn and discover and create, safe sidewalks and streets, clean air and water, mountain vistas, feelings of safety and security, harmonious, happy, and healthy communities--these are among the goods that make me feel rich!

Economists agree that the free market system, left to its own devices, does not always provide the "right" amounts of these goods.

Public finance is the study of how societies find ways to provide these goods outside a pure free market system and how to distribute those costs fairly and efficiently among those who benefit from the extraordinarily rich society in which we are blessed to live.

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