| Popis: |
Measuring the benefits from improved environmental quality is a formidable task, even under ordinary conditions. But at this time the difficulty is increased by the intense scrutiny given to new policy proposals. Reductions in federal expenditures on all programs make it necessary to subject estimates of gains from new programs to exceptional scrutiny for credibility and even accuracy. Thus the standards for evaluating estimates have increased; no longer can the advocate wave at gains in the “quality of life” without being subject to searching examination as to whether such “quality” is more or less than that achieved from competing medical care reimbursement plans, or secondary education loan guarantees, or expenditures on highway reconstruction. Benefits that are not measurable, in the sense that they cannot be re-estimated, might as well not exist, given that in the contest for federal program outlays that are movable from one program to another there are other programs that can show measurable and significant results. |
