disagree with America’s defense policies or with the level of defense spending, the national defense still

protects you. You cannot choose to be unprotected, and national defense cannot protect everyone else and

exclude you.

The second main characteristic of a public good, that it is non-rival, means that when one person uses the

public good, another can also use it. With a private good like pizza, if Max is eating the pizza then Michelle

cannot also eat it; that is, the two people are rivals in consumption. With a public good like national defense,

Max’s consumption of national defense does not reduce the amount left for Michelle, so they are non-rival in

this area.

A number of government services are examples of public goods. For instance, it would not be easy to provide

fire and police service so that some people in a neighborhood would be protected from the burning and
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