Why National Parks Matter

Why National Parks Matter

The National Parks System has long been dubbed “America’s Best Idea.” Many other societies around the world—free and otherwise—have gone much further with the idea that the public sector can and should provide goods to the public, from Britain’s National Health Service to Mexico’s state oil company Pemex to China’s high-speed rail system. Still, it is in the majesty of the Yosemite Valley or the depths of the Grand Canyon that the American visio…