This week, a lot of media attention has been paid to three climbers who went up Mt. Hood and have been missing for several days.  Extensive and expensive rescue efforts have been occurring.  On Sunday, the body of one of the climbers was found.  It appears that the other two may have fallen off a 2500′ cliff while they were going for help. 

One of the news reports said that 130 people have died on Mt. Hood in climbing accidents.  Mountain climbing is dangerous.  People die.  That is one consequence of making bad decisions when people are mountain climbing.  The people who engage in the behavior pay that price.  I wonder though who pays the other part of the price.

When people choose to go mountain climbing or engage in other dangerous sports and are hurt, are we as taxpayers paying part of the price as well? 

Who is paying the price for the search efforts?  Is that a good investment, in the opinion of the people who are paying that price? 

I hear on the news and from relatives and friends about the budget cuts in Oregon and how that is impacting the quality of education.  Think about the tremendous search efforts and significant cost in terms of searchers, fuel, and equipment.  To the extent that taxpayers are funding the search effort, might they prefer to have those resources reallocated to education, or to 101 other things that they might want to see done with their tax dollars? 

Could the Oregon National Guard members who are engaged in the search effort be tutoring school children, or spending the time with their families instead?  Would these activities be of more value to them, and to the taxpayers? 

So what does this mean for us as business people? 

Filed by Coleen Davis at 8:36 am under Achieving Goals, Business Acumen