Greetings from: Our favorite public goods

0:00N.P.R.

0:11This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darian Boyd. Recently, I got a postcard from Alex Mayyasi, contributor to Planet Money. Dear Darian, It was from the cesium fountain Atomic Clocks in Colorado. These are the clocks that set time for wristwatches, wall clocks, and phones all across the country. These atomic clocks are examples of public goods. A public good is some service or benefit that you can't exclude people from. So the whole world benefits from atomic clocks. They help us set the time better. Also, more people benefiting from the public good doesn't take away from others. So you can talk about things like streetlights or national security as being public goods.

0:58These atomic clocks measure the length of a second by the resonant frequencies of atoms. They are the world's most accurate type of clocks. The ones here are some of several hundred around the world, used to coordinate time for everyone. Where are we? Without such accurate shared time, GPS locations would be off, internet errors would proliferate, and power grids could fail. Clocking out for now, Alex. Alex Mayasi is also the author of the new Planet Money book. That book has a gorgeously illustrated collection of postcards of more public goods from around the world. So I thought, I've got to go.

1:38Today on the show, Alex Mayasi and I are going to take you on a virtual world tour of spectacular public goods, one whimsical postcard at a time. Let's go.

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3:08Dear Alex, I wanted to go on a tour of public goods myself. Big things we do together that we all benefit from. This one's from the French-Swiss border. It's the Large Hadron Collider. Tagline, take a hike as subatomic particles collide underneath your feet at 99 % of the speed of light. So only elite physicists get time at particle accelerators. Their magnetic rings smash particles together in scientifically revealing ways. But like the billions of dollars of research funded each year by governments, its findings are a public good. Experiments conducted here don't have immediate economic payoffs.

3:50Many seek to reveal the origin of the cosmos. But scientists often make practical discoveries indirectly. And the Large Hadron Collider has created economic value far exceeding its multi-billion dollar price tag. It's made discoveries in magnets, refrigeration and more. Sincerely, Darian. Alright, I'm just going to put a poster stamp on this. Drop it in the mail. I wonder where Alex's next adventure is. Dear Darren, Ahoy from the Strait of Gibraltar, pirate-free for 200 years. So for centuries, North African pirates captured trading ships as they sailed the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

4:35The crossing was perilous. That was until the 1800s, when the United States sent a naval squadron to intimidate the Barbary states of Tripoli and Algiers. France then conquered Algeria in 1830. Today, there's general agreement among countries from Morocco to India to Japan to protect the seas, and not seize rivals cargo. It's called freedom of the seas. The assumption is that unprotected cargo ships are unlikely to be captured by pirates. That keeps prices down at Walmart and home goods. Of course, we have seen this year in the Strait of Hormuz what happens when ships aren't safe from attack. We all pay the cost.

5:17But here in the Strait of Gibraltar, all is peaceful. Regards, Alex.

5:30Alex, I picked up this postcard while visiting a public good in progress. It's the Great Green Wall of the Sahel region of Africa. This is a man-made forest. So what I learned is that much of the area just south of the Sahara looks like a desert. But before widespread deforestation, overgrazing and climate change, it wasn't. That's why 11 African countries and some international organizations got together to plant millions of trees. The aim is to spend$33 billion to restore the land east to west across the entire continent. The hope is that this will mean more farming and more carbon stored, more carbon dioxide captured by the trees.

6:11It's an epic scale-up of public goods like parks and tree planting in cities that can cool cities several degrees. Happy sailing, Darian.

6:24Darian, I'm in a propeller plane in the middle of a hurricane. I've joined the hurricane hunters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. That's because weather forecasts are built on data gathered by the government from airport sensors, weather balloons, and ocean buoys. And there are three planes nicknamed Kermit, Gonzo, and Miss Piggy. When tropical storms are brewing over the Atlantic, pilots fly the Muppet planes through and around them to measure their path and ferocity. Taxpayers fund these agencies that gather and distribute atmospheric population and other data, although the Trump administration curtailed no offending.

7:01Stay dry, Alex.

7:08Alex Mayasi is a brave guy. I, for one, have had enough of travelling. I'm going to call a rideshare home from my phone using GPS, which is a public good provided by satellites. We'll listen to the radio home, comfortable knowing the road rules make the ride safer. You know, Alex, once you get up close to a public good, you can't help but see them everywhere. This episode was drawn from our new book, Planet Money, a guide to the economic forces that shape your life. If you buy a copy, you can see these postcards in their 1950s style, full color glory. Just go to planetmoneybook.com. This episode was produced by Angel Carreras for the engineering by Jimmy Keely.

7:54It was fact-tapped by Sierra Juarez. Cake & Cannon edits the show, and The Indicator is a production of NPR.

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