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Eric, 
 
I think one should not confuse this use by 
Smith of the term "public good" with how it 
is now used by economists.  Arguably it is 
the case that Smith was describing the kind 
of collective entity in public health that we would 
now describe as a public good.  But that can 
also be debated. 
 
I think what Smith meant in this instance 
by that term was a moral judgment:  that pubic 
health is something that is morally "good" and 
that it is so for many people and therefore is 
publicly so.  The current usage is that "good" 
refers to a commodity or a service or something 
that is consumed by the public collectively, not its 
moral or judgmental character as with Smith in this 
particular passage. 
 
Barkley Rosser 
James Madison University 
 
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