‘Where’s the money?’ is a classic question

The headline question in the Business section of Thursday’s Herald read: “Is $700 billion being spent wisely?”

At first this question brought to mind philosophy — defined as it is by its love of wisdom. But then a famous thought experiment constructed by the theoretical physicist Erwin Schroedinger in the 1930s flashed before my mind’s eye. It is called Schroedinger’s Cat, and it goes as follows:

A cat is placed in a box with a geiger-counter — and both with a radioactive atom. If the atom decays, and the geiger-counter detects an alpha particle, a hammer attached to the counter hits a flask of prussic acid and kills the cat. Before an observer opens the box, however, the cat’s fate is tied to the state of the atom, which to the observer is neither decayed nor undecayed. And here comes the zinger: The state of the cat before the box is opened is both dead and alive!

OK, so where’s the money? A nonphilosophical but classical question. The quantum question following Schroedinger’s Cat is: What’s the state of the $700 billion before the bank vaults are opened if it is tied to an economy that is neither decayed nor undecayed? That state probably does depend upon the effect of the economy on the regulatory agencies or not … after all, the hammer cannot fall unless there is economic decay. Isn’t it time to open the #*&^# box?!

David N. Houghtaling