
How expensive is a can of Coke if social cost is priced in? - arikr
http://www.kurtsp.com/how-expensive-is-a-can-of-coke.html
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orangecat
_Multiply the cost of one case of diabetes ($85,200) by the marginal chance of
developing the disease (18%), and divide by the number of 12oz cans consumed
over that decade (2555) gives $6.00._

The marginal increase is not 18%, it's 18% of the base rate.

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gus_massa
I tried to read the research article, but I'm not sure about the notation. One
can of coke increase the risk

a) from x% to x+18%?

b) from x% to x*(1.18)%?

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viraptor
Neither seems reasonable. The a is definitely wrong, or 6 cans would give you
diabetes guarantee, which is wrong. The b grows slower, but is still uncapped
and speeds up as it grows.

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Tomminn
The 18% transformation is associated with the change in risk due to a _serving
of coke every day for a decade_. Option b) is correct.

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gus_massa
I forgot to add "per day" in my comment. (I was aware of it, I just forget to
write it.) So option b) is almost correct.

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Old_Thrashbarg
I read this article expecting to hear about negative externalities, but it
seems the social cost described here is entirely in "private costs", at least
under the assumption of no government-sponsored healthcare.

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et2o
Would be interesting analysis if done correctly. Unfortunately author mistakes
absolute for relative risk. To be fair, this isn't an infrequent thing.

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ggm
What if you live in an economy with an NHS, and the direct and indirect costs
of diabetes mediation are less? (not that it's good, but it becomes an
argument in the application of indirect cost into pricing, which breaks the
macdonalds burger index apart into shards of social policy costs)

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featherverse
that's okay because they're going to pass those costs onto the community.

