ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that by theoretically recognizing preferences only insofar as they fit into pre-established functional units that are fit for quantification, Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) creates a kind of bureaucratic blindness to the spontaneous processes of opinion and will formation in reality. Unlike physics and biology, which aspire to uncover the truth about underlying realities that everyday common sense tends to falsify or distort, the modern social science known as CBA finds itself in the odd position of seeking theoretical knowledge about ordinary opinions. Interest in the question of why people have the preferences they have, or why their willingness to pay value (WTP) to achieve gains and their willingness to accept value (WTA) to compensate for losses are what they are at any given point in time. The academic discipline of behavioral economics was once considered marginal and exotic by mainstream economists.
