There is, naturally, a Roman proverb along the same lines:
qui vincit non est victor nisi victus fatebur. It translate s as "The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so."
The northern tier of states, especially inland, are quite cold and snowy for months out of the year. If you're a local, you're used to it and likely enjoy aspects of it. But for someone who isn't familiar with it, months of regular temperatures below freezing, ice and snow, and frequent drops to well below zero Farenheit, are pretty miserable.
It's not just will and money that are needed. You need competence, actual ability, as well. Otherwise you're just playing at being King Canute while someones get rich.
>we allow people to sound what alarms they want and patrons to decide for themselves what to pay attention to
I think the above alteration throws the dilemma into a little sharper relief.
We live in a complex society which requires a degree of deference to "expert authority" in order to function. Our collective ability to agree on how to determine who (or what) qualifies as such an authority is not working well. I do not have any answers in which I am confident, just Socrates line on the beginning of wisdom.
I confess to not having closely followed the issue, but every time I see it mentioned, my brain twitches. Is the choice between A) large construction project that overlaps with a site of immense historical and cultural significance, and B) spend the money for a couple extra miles of freeway, seems to be a very obvious one. The only reason I can see for B is a sort of aggressive anti-humanism.