The Total Cost Policy
It is time to stop subsidising destructive behaviour.
There are thousands of morbidly obese people entering hospitals every year for cardiovascular emergencies, diabetes and other preventable diseases. There are factories burning fossil fuels despite available alternatives. People are coming home drunk and beating their spouses every night.
What do all these (and other) behaviours have in common?
Besides the enormous damage they do, their sources are largely subsidised.
Subsidies come in two forms; the first is direct financial subsidy coming from the public money supply. The second is the price we all pay with our health, time and even money when we deal with the consequences of such behaviour. Having to deal with polluted air or putting up with an alcoholic is in a very real way a form of subsidy too.
We need to stop the first and start charging for the second.
The paradigm I’m proposing is:
The price for goods and services should include the cost of the secondary damages.
This means that each bottle of wine should include all the secondary costs of alcohol consumption, like health problems, traffic accidents, destroyed families, safe…
