4 years after Japan disaster, more than 200 seawalls exist only on paper

[Fred Friendlier]

6. Outstanding

I come from a chemistry background so I think in terms of Euler Coefficients and Chemical Potentials, which are equal when the system is in equilibrium. We can't achieve on a macro scale but we can at least try balance the competing demands so it is approximately true: try not to focus the time and effort and money on a twenty million dollar project that might save one house when a million dollars elsewhere might save an entire neighborhood.

A lot of this is judgment calls, and you are absolutely correct that we put a tacit value on life all the time - with some lives valued more highly than others. Then there is the bureaucratic reality that precautions not finished in 2015 may never be finished at all, as they get overtaken by new and more exciting concerns.