Moral philosophers and public economists such as Adam Mill, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marl explained common good as an outcome of a social welfare function. In the field of economics and philosophy, common good is defined as that which is considered beneficial for most or all members of a particular community. Simple basic needs and various aspirations of humankind are the human commonalities that link people from across different cultures, time and space. However, the more common something is, the higher the chances of it being taken for granted (Pack, S., 2010).
The use and application of the principle of commonality has helped minimize component development costs, reduction of investment costs related to spares inventory and simplification of logistics. The principle of commonality has realized a wide range of application in the aircraft industries, communities and automotive industries. Although education and knowledge are considered common goods in a bid to promote sustainable development, commonality has a wide range of limitations in relation to corporations, individuals and the government.
Legal compliance is a limit to the principle of commonality. For instance, corporations are required to act within the law and violation of law is often followed by life threatening penalties. In addition, corporations have an obligation to contribute to the development and enactment of laws that affect the community and businesses in which it operates and where its employees reside. Frank, R., (2011) posits that financial stability is a limit to the principle of commonality since people need money to implement common goods in order to promote sustainable development
According to Adam Smith, eliminating restrictions on trade, labor and prices often results in an advancement of commonality. This is because, by providing better products, lower prices and higher wages, universal opulence finds its way to extend to the lowest ranked individuals in the world (Hill, M., & Montag, W. (2015). John Rawls argues that world inequality and injustices are major limits to the promotion of commonality. He states that, when an individual has an uncertain future, they are likely to develop a scheme of justice that treats every person of the society equally. Justice facilitates the adoption of ‘maximin’ strategy which maximizes on the common good of the least advantaged individuals by assigning duties and rights that regulate the delivery of economic and social advantages to the larger society (Nass, S., Levit, L., Gostin, L., & Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2009).
