"Optimum is zero, because if you could wave a magic wand to magically make the amount of accidents zero, it would be a good thing to wave the wand." You are co

"Optimum is zero, because if you could wave a magic wand to magically make the amount of accidents zero, it would be a good thing to wave the wand." You are conflating optimum (highest value outcome for all variables) and ideal (highest value outcome for one variable). The ideal number of any bad thing is zero. I can't, off the top of my head, think of any bad thing for which the optimum number is zero. Extinction level events, perhaps.