Modern economics is obsessed with efficiency.  But an efficient system is antithetical to a resilient one. Perfect efficiency means zero waste, but any resources dedicated to disaster tolerance appears wasteful under normal circumstances.

Such is the case using antibiotics on livestock. You could of course dose every single animal you have.  You could do this cheaply and it virtually eliminates sickness and hence yield. But then you’re breeding bacterial resistance inside livestock, and so we wouldn’t be very resilient to any resulting disease outbreaks that crossover to humans. Making the right decision here is obviously beyond the scope of market forces. Sadly, it’s appears also beyond the scope of our government. (see previous post on tail risk)