Social Costs in Modern Society

This book examines methodological problems involved in determining social costs and analyzes costs and their allocation in significant sectors of American economic and political life. It starts with a discussion of social costs and means of accounting for them and is followed with detailed discussions of how human life and health have been valued in society. The social costs of products, activities, and situations such as electrical power production, occupational disability, unemployment, old age, poverty, duplication of capital facilities, drugs, transportation, food, the business of government, including the military sector, are discussed and assessed. A summary chapter provides a historical evaluation and perspective on changing trends in social cost assessment and allocation.