1Economics A commodity or service that is provided without profit to all members of a society, either by the government or a private individual or organization.
‘a conviction that library informational services are a public good, not a commercial commodity’
‘The responsibility of corporate executives, politicians, and officials for ensuring that private and public goods and services are safe is practically never enforced in court.’
‘They are also protesting the commodification of public goods and services, like water, electricity and garbage collection.’
‘We understand our roles in providing public goods and services and stabilising the economy when the private sector is in crisis.’
‘This is all the more important in an era when private companies are gaining ever greater control over essential public goods and services.’
‘Economists call arrangements of this kind public goods because, unlike private goods, the benefits are not limited to the producer or a single user.’
2The benefit or well-being of the public.
‘the public good clearly demands independent action’
‘If they are able to easily calculate how their choices benefit the public good, they most often make choices that do so.’
‘However, sometimes the only benefit is to the public good, and even that is no small thing.’
‘With silence, charity will fail both itself and the broader public good.’
‘The goal of both the church and the state is to advance the public good.’
‘We end the nightmare when we challenge the threat of corporate control and when we redefine globalization in our own way - for the public good.’
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