Absolute goals in a world of relative trade-offs
Some decisions often come down to how much money, time or effort something we want (or want to avoid) is worth. This can be remarkably hard to establish
When US presidential candidate Donald Trump returned for a rally to Butler, Pennsylvania, the place where there was an attempt to assassinate him a few months ago, he was speaking from behind bulletproof glass. This was just the most visible (!) manifestation of what were likely much more intensive security measures than last time round, when the security services were heavily criticized for their poor preparation and the mistakes they made. Even without knowing the details of the present and previous operation, it is not unreasonable to assume that more resources were deployed this time. But how would one decide what the right level of resource is? This is a very challenging kind of decision.
High stakes for VIPs and for ordinary mortals
Now, few of us will ever be involved in the protection of a presidential candidate and former president, but the fact alone that different resource levels can be allocated to one and the same mission — protect the VIP — illustrates the challenge. The potential additional measures were undoubtedly
