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Comment by hannob | Hacker News Reader

If you take the train and not the car, you cause a lot less externalities.

It may be the case that I cause a lot less externalities, but I don't think that affects the definition of a public good. If I visited my friend by using a motorcycle, I'd cause less externalities too, but I don't think motorcycles are public goods. Same with scooters, e-bikes and normal bikes.

Because reality requires these things of us but we should minimize the impact.

You’re just stringing words together to look smart; physical reality calls the shots. Your attempt to conjure some immutable truth in Anglo gibberish is banal

> but I don't think that affects the definition of a public good

You happen to be misconstruing the two definitions of "public good":

> 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.

> the benefit or well-being of the public.

As such, something can be a "public good" without being "a benefit".

[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=public+goods&si=AMnBZoHHbOut...

I don't think I'm misconstruing these two definitions, because I didn't talk about the definitions you just brought up. I also think it is quite clear that I'm talking about what the government should or shouldn't provide, not what some specific government currently is providing.

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