A closer look
Bureaucracies absolutely despise ambiguity, which is why they invented a way to literally put a price tag on a human soul. Shadow pricing allows government economists to calculate the unobservable market value of things like a ruined local park or a deceased citizen to decide if rebuilding is mathematically worth the taxpayer money. It is a coldly fascinating utilitarian math problem where saving your neighborhood is entirely dependent on whether the algorithm deems your zip code a net positive for the federal budget.
