Revision as of 19:43, 14 August 2023

While the ethical argument will always be the strongest and most consistent argument for Veganism, along with environmental and health arguments being very strong in their own regards, a sometimes neglected argument in favor of Veganism is the one from economics. While the argument has more nuance and requires a familiarity with the literature and evidence (just as the arguments from ethics, environment, and ethics), they can be a great way to add an extra layer to your activism, and highlight even more the lose-lose nature of animal agriculture.

You wouldn't necessarily use economic arguments on their own, they should complement the health and environmental ones, since they only have weight in light of these other arguments, as will be explained. Primarily, they come down to saving money in various ways, both government and personal. These arguments can appeal to more economically-minded people such as libertarians, who understand the value of a dollar.

This article will also address certain economic arguments that are used against Veganism, and how such issues would be addressed in a Vegan world.

Economic Arguments supporting Veganism

Improvements in healthcare infrastructure

One of the leading causes of disease and death in the developed world is poor diet. The Western Pattern Diet (formerly referred to as the Standard American Diet, which is common throughout the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and even wealthier parts of less developed countries, particularly South Africa, India and those in Latin America), consumed by the overwhelming majority of people in rich countries, is high in foods that promote unhealthfulness. These foods include red meats, processed meats, eggs, cheese, butter, soda, sweet foods including candy and pastries, fried food, and refined grains. Even though most people are aware that these foods are terrible for us, especially if consumed on a regular basis, we're too short-sighted to consider the consequences of our actions, and our hedonistic-centered brains are too focused on our immediate satisfaction rather than the long-term health effects we will face.

About a third of all cancer cases, particularly colon cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer have been linked to poor diet, with eggs, beef, and processed meats being the main culprits. Over 70% of heart-related diseases and strokes are caused by high consumption of cholesterol and saturated fats. Other health problems, including high-blood pressure, diabetes, crohn's disease, constipation, among others, have been linked to a poor diet, and treating all of these is not cheap.

Despite the United States lacking a Universal Healthcare system, the country has the highest percentage of GDP, roughly 18%[1], spent on healthcare globally, accounting for over four trillion dollars[2]. Given that poor diet is one of the main causes of hospital visits, some studies were conducted to see how much tax money could be saved if the population of the United States focused their diets on whole plants. Estimates range from about $50 billion[3] to $180 billion[4]. These numbers also likely do not consider the positive consequence of doctors and nurses not needing to see as many patients, which causes them to not make as many mistakes, which means less accidental injuries and deaths, which leads to less suing, culminating in an even larger healthcare savings.

While of course it's completely possible to eat like complete garbage on a Vegan diet, with the existence of Vegan cookies, ice cream, donuts, high-saturated fat mock meats, and coincidentally Vegan products like Coke, certain candies, and chocolate frosting, with most of these things only being at most marginally healthier than their non-Vegan originals, but Vegans on average tend to be much more health conscious than average, being sure to eat more healthful whole plants while keeping junk food in moderation. Vegans on a poor diet tend to not stay Vegan for very long due to feeling malnourished. Eating just a couple servings a week of whole plants, particularly legumes, vegetables, and nuts, puts someone miles ahead of a person eating a junk-food diet, Vegan or non-Vegan, and is incredibly easy to accomplish. It's also possible to make healthful food delicious too, meaning little loss having meals like these over ice cream.

It also highlights how a diet that prioritizes whole plants (much closer to Veganism) saves more money than the current standard diet that prioritizes meat (not close to Veganism).

Regardless of what your opinion on socialized medicine is, saving money on healthcare is a pretty important consideration. Not only will we not need to treat anywhere near as many diseases as we do now, but this money can go towards other useful things for society, including scientific and technological research, investment in infrastructure, clean energy, education, and foreign aid, just to name a few. Is this the only way to save money on healthcare? Of course not. It can go further by promoting other healthy lifestyle choices such as not drinking, smoking, or doing drugs and producing more doctors and nurses.

Economic Arguments Used Against Veganism

What about the loss of jobs?

Disregarding the fact that slaughterhouse and meat-rendering jobs rank among the worst jobs on planet Earth (almost certainly much worse than sweatshop jobs in terms of work conditions), leaving workers with PTSD, psychological problems, as well as the risk of personal injury and sickness, keep in mind that progressive social change will come along with requiring some people to find new lines of work. While currently 99% of jobs in society are not harmful and serve as an impetus for economic development and helping out the world, jobs and sectors of the economy that are known to be evils must be eschewed in the name of progress. During the time of slavery, a big concern was the massive economic upheaval that would occur as a result of its abolishment. Did it result in this economic upset? Absolutely. Was it worth it? You probably know the answer to that.

But a lot of lobbyists on behalf of the animal agriculture industry will always be quick to point out how many jobs they are able to provide and how much GDP they add to the economy, hoping you conveniently ignore the horrible and unnecessary working conditions they create and that the dissolution of animal agriculture will not automatically translate to total job and economic loss; ONLY slaughterhouse and meat rendering jobs will be significantly lost, which will be replaced by others. There will still be a demand for food, and we will need people to grow, cultivate, process, etc. that food: This will not change. We will still need people (MORE people now that everyone's Vegan) to farm our crops (fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, which are now all being eaten by humans instead of half of them being fed to livestock) and package and ship them, and people will still buy them with their money instead of meat products, and we will need people to manufacture Vegan foods too, so instead of working in a burger plant, they will work in a veggie-burger factory.

This line is a last resort of lobbyists and marketers trying to make their industry seem like a public good since it's pretty damn hard to deny the harms they cause, though even if they provided jobs that can't be replaced, their industry causes far too much harm to animals and the environment to ever be worth it, and their industries make up a very small percentage of the workforce anyway. ANY sort of busywork is economically beneficial, even if it's building giant bridges in the middle of nowhere. All in all it wouldn't be hard to compensate these people with the implementation of a UBI, as well as providing free vocational training and university education to these people, and maybe add some job guarantee in there too for good measure (which will all be useful measures with the rise of automation, which is a far bigger threat to blue-collar job security than Veganism and free trade ever could be). But again, the end of animal agriculture will not spell economic destruction, and as the rest of this article shows, it will lead to economic relief.