In five pages this paper discusses how tourism serves to benefit the public good in an examination that includes Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Australia's Sydney Opera House. One source is cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: CC6_KSeconSmithPub.rtf
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In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith discussed the responsibility of government to erect and maintain those structures and systems that would be too costly for individuals or groups
of individuals. The point of being costly applies in all aspects: construction, use and maintenance. Smiths point was that the structure itself may not be too costly
in terms of initial outlay, but that it would be difficult or impossible for those responsible for the structures construction to recoup their investment. Smiths "Public Goods"
Smith himself largely left the point at the above, without giving an example. British philosopher John Stuart Mill supplied an apt example in the next
century, however. Mills example was that of a lighthouse. It met Smiths qualifications in that it would be costly for an individual or group of individuals to erect,
and it would be impossible for those who constructed it to recoup the expense from those individuals gaining benefit from its existence. One author even muses, "It is easy
to see how this would be difficult for charge for the lighthouse service. Try to visualize toll booths for the purpose out in the ocean!" (The Lighthouse 1).
The same principle applies to any such public good. There are toll roads of course, but they represent only a small fraction of the
total number of roads available for use. Public water systems do pay for themselves, but only in terms of volume use by individuals connected to the system. Though
the water system infrastructure exists to supply municipal water to homes and businesses, there are "leaks" along the way from which the entire community benefits. These "leaks" are in