'Public Goods' from the Market

In the mounting criticism of 'government failure', a role for government is stubbornly argued by statist-minded economists on the ground that only government can supply public goods - from defence to (some) research (p. 34). Frank van Dun of the University of Ghent argues that public goods have the same disadvantages of monopoly, restriction of choice, confiscation by taxation, pressure group distortion, as non-public goods unnecessarily supplied by government. Moreover, technical progress will make it possible to supply more public goods in the market by creating separable benefits that can be financed by pricing.