Law, Business and Society 11th Edition by Tony McAdams

Exercise 36

Roger Cohen, writing in The New York Times, made the interesting point that India, as of 2010, had more cell phones than toilets; 563.7 million people connected to modern communication, but only 366 million had access to modern sanitation. He says this imbalance could be seen as "skewed development" favoring private goods over public necessities. In India and in America, he sees a kind of schizophrenia where we are increasingly autonomous, wanting to be left alone; our technology connecting us, allowing us to feel no need for government until a crises, like the recent meltdown, arrives. Then many desperately plead for the government to save us.
a. Are we giving too much attention to private needs and too little, via government and taxes, to public goods Explain.
b. Can we have an autonomous, free market culture, substantially contemptuous of government, and still maintain a stable, healthy, and fair national and global community Explain.