Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"I think in two ways. I think the first question is whether the project is logical for the government to be involved in. There are many projects out there in the world that simply aren't profitable for the private sector to be involved in, or where the private sector can only perform at a great cost, and this is a reason for government to be involved. Roads have traditionally been a good example. It's very difficult for private road makers to make money because of the problem of keeping users off the road, and the benefits of roads were so great, so it was logical for the government to be involved. Secondly, you want to look at every government project in a benefit-cost framework. This is saying, 'What are going to be the benefits to the economy for, say, a new road in terms of faster economic growth?' But, very importantly, you have to recognize the private sector - people, taxpayers - are going to have to give up money in order to build that road. So there's a cost, so what you obviously want to do is try to evaluate the benefits from building the road versus the costs of what you have to give up in the private economy to build that road. I know this sounds very easy, but actually getting the numbers can prove very, very difficult."