From a resource standpoint, the important point of this comparison is that including the marginal external costs of production and allocating resources based on the full social cost results in a higher price for the good (Ps > Pp) and less output (Os < Op) than only including the private costs.
Today, the nation's farmers are 17 years older than the average American worker, with the ranks of farmers who are 75 years and up outnumbering those in their prime working years of 35 to 44. One big reason U.S. farmers are going gray: spiraling costs.
The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture farm census, released in May, showed the average age of principal farm operators is now 58 years old. That's seven and a half years older than the average age of a farmer in the early 1980s. View Images There are fewer U.S. farmers than there were 30 years ago, and as a group, theyâre getting older.