Sacrifices

David Foster Wallace writes:

What if we chose to regard the 2,973 innocents killed in the atrocities of 9/11 not as victims but as democractic martyrs?... In other words, what if we chose to accept the fact that every few years, despite all reasonable precautions, some hundreds or thousands of us may die in the sort of ghastly terrorist attack that a democratic republic cannot 100-percent protect itself from without subverting the very principles that make it worth protecting? ... Would it be monstrous to refer to the 40,000-plus domestic highway deaths [in the US] we accept each year because the mobility and autonomy of the car are evidently worth that high price? The Atlantic, (subscription) November 2007

Mr Wallace, rightly in my view, laments the lack of a serious national conversation about the relevant tradeoffs. The discussion is about 'The American Idea' , and Mr Wallace goes on to ask:

What are the effects on the American idea of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, PATRIOT Acts I and II, warrantless surveillance...etc?

Even if they have made Americans safer 'are they worth it?'

Where and when was the public debate on whether they're worth it? Was there no such debate because we're not capable of having or demanding one? Why not?

All good questions. I wonder whether their answer is largely a technical one. Of course, people with power rarely relinquish it voluntarily. And there are highly effective lobby groups who will do a lot to prevent meaningful debates about policy priorities. But the real reason may be less sinister: it's that we are more consumed by process, gesture, symbol, media interest and activity when we are making policy, rather than outcomes. Nobody has strong incentives to monitor policies for their effectiveness, so that gets a very low priority. Trade-offs, such as that between road transport and alternatives, have to be painstakingly guessed at, long after policies are implemented and entrenched.

The Social Policy Bond principle, by obliging us consider the outcomes we want, would encourage discussion of trade-offs. It would not end the debate about sacrifices between, for example, safety and freedom that Mr Foster Wallace raises, but it would bring to the forefront the notion of such tradeoffs. By making them explicit, an Social Policy Bond regime could both make debate possible and bring about more public participation in it.