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I agree the government trying to optimize to increasing GDP is not great for society, but it does also optimize for maximum tax revenue increase, so I understan

I agree the government trying to optimize to increasing GDP is not great for society, but it does also optimize for maximum tax revenue increase, so I understand why its done. I don't see any reason why one needs to socialize healthcare in order to regulate foodstuffs. Food manufacturers are going to make their foods stuffs addictive if people buy them more because of that, not whether a country has socialized medicine. One might even argue that people have less incentive to work on being healthy when their healthcare is paid by someone else.

kikoreis 7y ago
I think the point being made is that when the government bears the cost of the externality it is more incentivized to address root causes, as it is a direct driver of savings. I am always looking for this sort of alignment of incentives when structuring a project, and it takes some effort but when you can find it it's dynamite.
- true_religion 7y ago
  With prisons the government bears the cost, and would benefit if fewer people were in prison. In practice, it has lead to for profit prisons and judicial corruption.
  - quadrifoliate 7y ago
    This is due to revolving door lobbying inherent in the political system, which is why states have started banning contracts with private prisons.
- quadrifoliate 7y ago
  > I think the point being made is that when the government bears the cost of the externality it is more incentivized to address root causes, as it is a direct driver of savings. Thank you, this is indeed the point that was intended. It's not a direct case of the food manufacturer saying "Hey we have socialized healthcare, let's make healthier chips", it's the government thinking "Damn, we have a lot of obese people, let's have incentives or rules that make manufacturers produce healthier foods".
  - njarboe 7y ago
    That is a pretty optimistic view of US government agencies that I don't share. Most fight tooth and nail to increase their budgets so I think don't heathcare being socialized (and becoming the largest agency in the government) would likely increase the government interest in a healthy population.

kikoreis 7y ago

I think the point being made is that when the government bears the cost of the externality it is more incentivized to address root causes, as it is a direct driver of savings. I am always looking for this sort of alignment of incentives when structuring a project, and it takes some effort but when you can find it it's dynamite.

true_religion 7y ago
With prisons the government bears the cost, and would benefit if fewer people were in prison. In practice, it has lead to for profit prisons and judicial corruption.
- quadrifoliate 7y ago
  This is due to revolving door lobbying inherent in the political system, which is why states have started banning contracts with private prisons.
quadrifoliate 7y ago
> I think the point being made is that when the government bears the cost of the externality it is more incentivized to address root causes, as it is a direct driver of savings. Thank you, this is indeed the point that was intended. It's not a direct case of the food manufacturer saying "Hey we have socialized healthcare, let's make healthier chips", it's the government thinking "Damn, we have a lot of obese people, let's have incentives or rules that make manufacturers produce healthier foods".
- njarboe 7y ago
  That is a pretty optimistic view of US government agencies that I don't share. Most fight tooth and nail to increase their budgets so I think don't heathcare being socialized (and becoming the largest agency in the government) would likely increase the government interest in a healthy population.