The True Cost Of A Cheeseburger
I agree the Mark Bittman that the true cost of a burger is not the price that we pay at the time of purchase; rather there are many externalities that are not included in the price of burgers that are produced by fast food restaurants. The writer started the article with mention of The Cheeseburger Bill which was passed by house of Representatives in 2005 that is forbade the consumers to sue the fast food companies over the weight gain.
One the fast food restaurants make a burger, they produce a lot of carbon which is a negative externality to the society, they do not pay the price of the damage they do to the society by producing carbon. Mark tries to explain the externalities of the production process and how the true cost is not included
in the price of the products. One of the major externalities of the burger’s the carbon generation, obesity. He also comes up with a rough estimate of cost of carbon per burger which is 53 cents per burger.
In addition, when people eat burgers they are taking more calories which caused health issues and obesity which cost people to spend a lot of their income on treatments. He also explains how the obesity is an externality of the selling burgers and how much it cost to the society over the years. On average, the health risk and treatment cost has increased up to 15 percent of fast food’s share of direct and indirect costs arising from obesity (source Mark article).
Another negative externality could be production of a lot of trash in every city. The city cleans these trashes with tax payer’s money and waste resources that could be used somewhere else.
On page 96 and 97 of the text book, we studies positive and negative externalities. According to the definitions, the negative impact of producing cheap food is big to the society which is not reflected in the total cost of the burger. I would to like to add that it causes it to also have positive externalities to the society too, since burgers are produced faster, with less time and resources, people waste less time on cooking and they have more time to use in the production of other goods and services.
One the fast food restaurants make a burger, they produce a lot of carbon which is a negative externality to the society, they do not pay the price of the damage they do to the society by producing carbon. Mark tries to explain the externalities of the production process and how the true cost is not included
in the price of the products. One of the major externalities of the burger’s the carbon generation, obesity. He also comes up with a rough estimate of cost of carbon per burger which is 53 cents per burger.
In addition, when people eat burgers they are taking more calories which caused health issues and obesity which cost people to spend a lot of their income on treatments. He also explains how the obesity is an externality of the selling burgers and how much it cost to the society over the years. On average, the health risk and treatment cost has increased up to 15 percent of fast food’s share of direct and indirect costs arising from obesity (source Mark article).
Another negative externality could be production of a lot of trash in every city. The city cleans these trashes with tax payer’s money and waste resources that could be used somewhere else.
On page 96 and 97 of the text book, we studies positive and negative externalities. According to the definitions, the negative impact of producing cheap food is big to the society which is not reflected in the total cost of the burger. I would to like to add that it causes it to also have positive externalities to the society too, since burgers are produced faster, with less time and resources, people waste less time on cooking and they have more time to use in the production of other goods and services.