Question

Your class visits a local jail run by a private, profit­making company that detains county criminals and is paid with tax revenue. Is it a public, individual, or merit good?

Answer 1

Individual good is the right answer. An individual good has the characteristic of being exclusive of property rights and rivalry of consumption, meaning that the owner can prevent it from being consumed by anyone and they can be consumed by individuals without affecting their availability to other individuals. In the example, it only gets sustained by the local taxes and only puts behind bard the county criminals and not any criminal, so this is why individual good fits the answer.

Answer 2

It is individual good because it is run by a profit and private company