ROI is implicitly against the alternative or status quo: - Fridge: has ROI vs. going to the store more often or getting food poisoning. - Washing machine: Has

ROI is implicitly against the alternative or status quo: - Fridge: has ROI vs. going to the store more often or getting food poisoning. - Washing machine: Has ROI measured in the value of your time spent not slapping clothes against a board to make them clean. - Stove: ROI vs. using and maintaining a fire pit, with the risk of burning your house down factored in. - MacBook: ROI is how much work you can get done vs. a Windows machine, or not having a laptop and doing math really fast by hand on paper. Etc. It is suspicious that there isn’t a “this will pay for itself in N years vs. not having it” statement somewhere.