National Defense is a...

• A. Public good
• B. Private good
• C. Club good
• D. Common good

Answer: (A)

Public goods are non-excludable and non-rivalrous. National defense fits this description because everyone in the country benefits from protection, and one person’s safety does not reduce another’s. You can’t realistically exclude people from defense, and protecting one person doesn’t lessen protection for others. Because it’s non-excludable, markets would underprovide it, which is why governments typically fund it through taxes. Other types of goods differ in how they can be consumed or charged for, but the key point is that defense provides universal protection at once without diminishing others’ use, which makes it a public good.