# Assumed Goods By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2023-06-05 In economics, a _good_ is any item that is useful to people but is scarce in relation to its demand. Market economics would predict that the price will increase as a means of rationing a scarce good. If the good is popular enough, market forces will work together to increase the supply of the good, which will reduce the price until it reaches its equilibrium. This process works relatively efficiently for consumer goods. The process does not work well for public goods. When dealing with public goods politics are involved, and the calculations of benefits are both more complicated and more interesting. Education is one example. There is compulsory education for grades K-12. Historically, America supported public funding of public schools to meet this need. Preschool programs were the responsibility of parents. The research found that participation in preschool programs was beneficial for subsequent learning in grades K-12. Some argued that since this was beneficial to learning, it would make sense to fund this as well. Under this paradigm, children shouldn’t be held hostage to their parent’s economic well-being. Poor and rich children alike should have access to the foundational benefits of preschool programs. Others argued that it was the responsibility of parents to pay for such programs and the government shouldn’t become a “nanny state.” A similar disagreement exists in terms of trade schools and colleges. Being educated and employable could be considered as serving the public good. Under that perspective, those programs would be tax-funded. Others think that after basic education, the individual should incur the cost associated with further training or education since they potentially derive individual benefits from it. Is education beneficial to society? Such a simple question generates radically different responses. Education contributes to progress. Education erodes the basis for unthought acceptance of conventions. Is there any doubt why one political party tends to have the support of teachers’ unions and advocates for more democratic access to education in all its forms, while the other political party increasingly wants to privatize all forms of education and make it increasingly costly to the individual? If one is interested in control and the maintenance of the status quo, education is not a good. #### Related Items [[Education]] [[Good]] [[Politics]] [[Beliefs]] [[Economics]] [[Democracy]] [[Society]]