Max Sawicky wrote: > If C-B is not possible, sports fans, how would your preferred from of > government make a decision about whether or not to undertake a project? <
it should be noted that there are at least two different kinds of C/B analysis. There's the standard approach, where the authors usually assume that market prices correspond to social costs and benefits and that future benefits and costs should be discounted using interest rates reflecting the short-term mentality of financial markets. there's also the general form of C/B, where all of the likely costs and benefits are cataloged and then explicitly added up using subjective weights (instead of sneaking in the assumption that the market is the measure of all things). A special version of this would use weights which are "shadow prices" based on democratically agreed-upon priorities. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
