One of the biggest errors that we as a society are committing: creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs by overusing antibiotics. It's overused in humans. But even more shocking is the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock. 80% of antibiotics sold in the U.S. is not for human use, but for livestock. Farmers and ranchers routinely feed antibiotics to their animals to promote faster growth. We are creating strains of antibiotic resistant superbugs that can kill us so we can have cheaper meat. It doesn't make sense.
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Walter
11/27/2014 02:26:39 pm
Since the farmers recieve the benefit of cows with extra meat but don't bear the cost of a super bug killing all of humanity, there is a negative externality in the use of antibiotics.
Ben Mathew
11/29/2014 01:42:58 am
Yes, I think there should be a tax on antibiotic use (like a tax on carbon). How big the tax should be is hard question. But with all public goods, a good starting point to thinking about the issue is how much you personally are willing to pay for the good. As for myself, I'd definitely pay a few hundred dollars a year at least. Add up everyone's answer (which depends on their preferences and wealth), and you have the total cost society is willing to pay for access to effective antibiotics. I'm guessing that even if a Pigouvian tax increases the price of meat by a couple dollars a pound, having more effective antibiotics would still be worth it. But I'm guessing it would end up costing a lot less than that. I would be surprised if antibiotic use is reducing meat production costs by more than 30%. I would guess that a small Pigouvian tax would end the use of antibiotics for livestock and increase meat prices by less than 30%. These are all wild guesses of course, but those are the parameters of how I would start to think about the issue: demand (how much are we willing to pay for effective antibiotics?) and supply (how much can we get for that?). Leave a Reply. |
Ben Mathew
Author of Economics: The Remarkable Story of How the Economy Works Archives
February 2016
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