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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ] , i I - p "',. -; ..~ .": 7 " .l . _ ." -- would choose one hundred dollars today. The reason is that most individuals place a higher value on money for present use than the same amount of money for future uses. Economists who hold this view of the discount rate often use the interest rates used on various types of savings as an empirical measure of the discount rate. Another, related, interpretation of discount rates is based upon the concept of opportunity cost. Economists define opportunity cost as the value foregone by choosing one option over another. Since most federal projects are built with tax dollars, they can be viewed as taking money away from the private sector that would otherwise be used for investment or consumption purposes. Economists who hold this view argue that a government project should demonstrate as least as high a rate of return as could be obtained by putting the same amount of money to use in the private sector. Thus, they argue that the appropriate discount rate measure is the marginal productivity of capital in the private sector. Other economists argue that interest rates and rates of return observed in the economy do not accurately reflect social concerns about future generations. That is, arguments can be made that in certain situations, society is more concerned about future benefits and costs than is reflected by an empirically determined discount rate. This view is a social time preference approach to the determination of a discount rate, and often is used to argue for relatively low discount rates. The WRC Guidelines do not address any of these arguments directly; rather, they specify the use of a federally mandateu discount rate based upon a formula established by the U.S. Congress. That formula is based upon the rate of return of U.S. Government securities with maturity dates 11 k.; :.._~~