Awesome resource, thanks for the link! (Also, I had never heard of Pigouvian taxes before—thanks!)
Given your list, I’d group the “categories” of externalities into:
Environment (driving, emitting carbon, agriculture, municipal waste)
Public health (driving, obesity, alcohol, smoking, antibiotic use, gun ownership)
Financial (debt)
And, if I understand it correctly, it’s tough for me to offset some of these. This is because:
Luckily, I just happen to not do many of them (e.g. driving, obesity, alcohol, smoking, debt).
But even if I did, it’s not clear to me how to offset. i.e. Given your research in this area, could you help me answer this question—if I (or people in the developed world generally) were to offset the externalities our actions, what should we offset? 1st clear answer is paying to offset our carbon emissions. What would be “#2”, and how would we “pay” to offset it? (e.g. If I was obese, who would I pay to offset that?)
I don’t think it makes sense to donate to an “effective charity” in the typical sense when it comes to obesity because your externality is only affecting taxpayers in your own healthcare system.
Given that the table listed the cost of obesity as affecting socialized medicine, you would presumably donate to something local and medical, like a hospital. You could also potentially donate to (eg diabetes) research or a charity that makes healthy eating easier in your area.
I actually wrote up a survey a bit ago pulling together negative externalities with estimates in the literature: https://www.col-ex.org/posts/pigouvian-compendium/. From (estimated) largest to smallest, they are:
Driving
Emitting carbon
Obesity
Drinking alcohol
Agriculture
Municipal waste
Smoking
Antibiotic use
Debt
Gun ownership
Awesome resource, thanks for the link! (Also, I had never heard of Pigouvian taxes before—thanks!)
Given your list, I’d group the “categories” of externalities into:
Environment (driving, emitting carbon, agriculture, municipal waste)
Public health (driving, obesity, alcohol, smoking, antibiotic use, gun ownership)
Financial (debt)
And, if I understand it correctly, it’s tough for me to offset some of these. This is because:
Luckily, I just happen to not do many of them (e.g. driving, obesity, alcohol, smoking, debt).
But even if I did, it’s not clear to me how to offset. i.e. Given your research in this area, could you help me answer this question—if I (or people in the developed world generally) were to offset the externalities our actions, what should we offset? 1st clear answer is paying to offset our carbon emissions. What would be “#2”, and how would we “pay” to offset it? (e.g. If I was obese, who would I pay to offset that?)
Thanks!
I don’t think it makes sense to donate to an “effective charity” in the typical sense when it comes to obesity because your externality is only affecting taxpayers in your own healthcare system.
Given that the table listed the cost of obesity as affecting socialized medicine, you would presumably donate to something local and medical, like a hospital. You could also potentially donate to (eg diabetes) research or a charity that makes healthy eating easier in your area.