“Albeit these healthier foods still probably have a higher baseline price.”
Maybe in the short-term, but considering the lifetime consequences of unhealthy eating (e.g., atherosclerosis, heart disease, cancer, dementia—Dr. Peter Attia’s stated 4 horsemen of death that account for 80% of death in the US—not to mention the emotional damage on your mood and potential productivity), the cost/benefit analysis seems heavily weighted in favor of eating healthier foods.
I agree, but from a purely economic POV I don’t know if that holds.
This depends on how healthy eating affects lifetime medical costs. Compare person 1 who lives 70 years, and person B who eats healthier and lives to 80. Both people probably have about the same number of working years (lifetime income/contribution to GDP). Does person A spend (or cost) more on medical care in 70 years than person B does in 80? Or does Person B get more healthy years but also more years where they need expensive chronic care? In that case, the healthy food costs more up front, and also makes it harder to save enough to pay for the medical care you’re going to need once you retire. Sure, person B may be able to stay healthy and work more years, so that complicates things, but then they may spend a longer fraction of their retirement not healthy enough to fully enjoy it, it’s not clear to me.
Note: just want to make clear this is not about inflation, which would be more a discussion of the costs of individual bits of medical or chronic care. It does relate to the cost of healthcare as a fraction of the economy.
“Albeit these healthier foods still probably have a higher baseline price.”
Maybe in the short-term, but considering the lifetime consequences of unhealthy eating (e.g., atherosclerosis, heart disease, cancer, dementia—Dr. Peter Attia’s stated 4 horsemen of death that account for 80% of death in the US—not to mention the emotional damage on your mood and potential productivity), the cost/benefit analysis seems heavily weighted in favor of eating healthier foods.
I agree, but from a purely economic POV I don’t know if that holds.
This depends on how healthy eating affects lifetime medical costs. Compare person 1 who lives 70 years, and person B who eats healthier and lives to 80. Both people probably have about the same number of working years (lifetime income/contribution to GDP). Does person A spend (or cost) more on medical care in 70 years than person B does in 80? Or does Person B get more healthy years but also more years where they need expensive chronic care? In that case, the healthy food costs more up front, and also makes it harder to save enough to pay for the medical care you’re going to need once you retire. Sure, person B may be able to stay healthy and work more years, so that complicates things, but then they may spend a longer fraction of their retirement not healthy enough to fully enjoy it, it’s not clear to me.
Note: just want to make clear this is not about inflation, which would be more a discussion of the costs of individual bits of medical or chronic care. It does relate to the cost of healthcare as a fraction of the economy.