> I assume governments have models to make decisions about utility now vs utility later, and the way that trades off with cost now vs cost later. I'm curious w

> I assume governments have models to make decisions about utility now vs utility later, and the way that trades off with cost now vs cost later. I'm curious where this assumption comes from. It seems more likely that it would be made on intuition of what story will seem most defensible to voters or avoid the angry scrutiny of a legislator. If decisions were made with the high level of rationality you point to, it seems unlikely that the US would have problems like this: - https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2022/02/07/pittsburgh-warning-signs-fern-hollow-bridge-collapse/ https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2022/02/07/pittsburgh-warnin... - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/it-is-a-challenge-the-irs-wants-more-staff-to-cut-its-backlog-but-25k-salaries-arent-going-to-draw-job-seekers-watchdog-says-11644362209 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/it-is-a-challenge-the-irs-... - https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-transition-away-from-use-of-third-party-verification-involving-facial-recognition https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-transition-away-f... ---------------- Looking at your username lets consider a question such as "Should we pay additional money to design London's new Elizabeth Line with step-free access at all stations?" for such a model to answer such questions, we would need a way to accurately count costs. If could do that, then the line would already be open.