excludability (also referred in this context as rivalry) - cannot be consumed by everybody since consumption by one person reduces or excludes consumption by another
depletability (it is finite)
Private goods are almost exclusively made for profit.
An example of the private good is bread: there is a finite amount of it, and bread eaten by a given person cannot be consumed by another.
One of the most common way of looking at goods in economy, illustrated in the table below, is the classic division based on:
is there a competition involved in obtaining a given good
whether it is possible to exclude a person from consumption of a given good
The common good is often regarded as a utilitarian ideal, thus representing "the greatest possible good for the greatest possible number of individuals".
These definitions of the common good present it as a quality which is convertible, or reducible, to the sum total of all the private interests of the individual members of a society and interchangeable with them.
Another definition of the common good, as the quintessential goal of the State, requires an admission of the individual's basic right in society, which is, namely, the right of everyone to the opportunity to freely shape his life by responsible action, in pursuit of virtue and in accordance with the moral law.
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