According to the podcast on planet money, I agree with the economist on what the government should spend money on, that is, autopsies, defense, police force and building of lighthouses on coastlines. Autopsies are beneficial to the families of the deceased to know what the cause of death for their loved one was.The economist further adds that there is a current provision by the US Congress on the provision of public goods to include autopsies. The defense and police forces as well bear characteristics of public goods. They benefit the whole population and should not be provided by the market rather by the government. Light houses should also be built by the government as they assist any sailor on the coast not to hit rocks and know the depth level.
The government should also follow suit as other governments and provide other public goods or spend money on the military revenue streams such as in china where the government provides a beer race car sport which is entertaining as well as dangerous where people drive race cars when drunk. The economist in the podcast also suggests the government should spend money on healthcare, education system, research and development, provision of other goods such as alcohol, cement and even beer all as public goods.
The goods above are classified as public goods by the economist based on two provisions: they have no marginal cost and they are non-excludable, that is, anyone can use a public good without limiting its use by another party and there’s n further cost paid by the user of the public good
The USPS, which is the United States Postal Service Delivery is not a public good in the opinion of the economist because there’s a marginal cost o the user of the public good and it is excludable because if one doesn’t pay one may be excluded from sending letters or posts.
Issues on autopsies
The economist states that the percentage of autopsies use has dropped from 47% to single digits therefore illustrating the decrease in the use of autopsies. He further states that it is better that the autopsies be paid for in private because of the wrong diagnoses, malpractice and the missed diagnoses made by doctors; a complaint by the Medical Association.
The beneficiaries of autopsies are the family of then deceased, that is the family of the autopsy candidate and the medical research institutes that receive donations of body parts such as the cornea and the skin of deceased persons.
Personally I wouldn’t expect autopsies to be under-provided because of the sensitive nature of the medical profession and the expertise involved but results are based on fact and the autopsies in the United States are underprovided according to the economist
Other ways of providing efficient level autopsies include private autopsies if on suspects malpractice by employing mobile morgue doctors who perform private autopsies do not reveal the information of the autopsy to the public due to privacy and time issues.
1800 autopsy in the podcast provide information that the rate of autopsies received has declined from 50% to 2%. Currently people go to insurance companies because they have a higher chance of getting autopsies with the approximate cost of getting an autopsy being about $ 3000 as stated in the podcast.
Therefore ultimately there is an efficient level of providing autopsies and the government standing in the way to cover many forms of public goods generally benefitting the society and all citizens conclusively
Works Cited
"Lighthouses, Autopsies And The Federal Budget." NPR. NPR. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/14/146889446/the-tuesday-podcast-lighthouses-autopsies-and-the-federal-budget>.
