Dumb Preliminary Question (1 Viewer)

[GaDaMIt]

okay basically.. this post is half a question and half a rant about my teacher

On friday i had asked my teacher how exactly health care (a merit good) benefitted the community as a whole rather than just a lot of different individuals. She (being in my belief the under-qualified teacher she is) came to the conclusion that the difference between public goods and merit goods is that merit goods have a waiting period.

Nice change of question on her behalf ey?

This isnt the only time she had no idea

In fact every time this year that i asked her a question shes had no idea.. literally.. coz basically sure she understands basic stuff.. and i get that too once reading the textbook.

other instances have been calling the current wage determination system centralised, and not knowing what the unit elastic supply curve looks like

other than that.. my original question stands

How does health care benefit the community as a whole rather than just several individuals? I guess id appreciate the same answer for education .. as that is another listed example of a merit good..

 

[gnrlies]

A merit good is a special kind of public good.

It is a public good that would be provided privately, howevor may be underfunded, or may only be provided to some people.

For example australia post would unlikely exist in regional australia if left to the private sector due to costs, howevor would most likely exist in cities as a profits can be made. Because of this issue of equity, the government provides these goods so that basic services can be provided to all citizens and benefit the community.

Same with education so that not just the rich have access to them

Waiting time? hmm I got no idea how she came up with that

Dont be so hard on your teacher. If she is not very well qualified as you say then she probably isn't the best person to ask anyway. Perhaps consult your textbook because you'll get a better answer there. If she is knowledgeble its probably because shes not sure of what your asking, or shes not up to scratch on a specific concept. There is a lot in economics, and considering that prelim and hsc eco is mostly definitions, some of this stuff gets looked over