> why can't it spend 5 billion to protect our lives? Let me answer that for you: It increases the property value to have noise-free residential areas. Property has a worth to whoever made the decision to build the sound-barriers. However, your life obviously doesn't. And how could it, in all likelihood you're a slave who complains about muh gobernmen while paying taxes, not facilitating criminal enterprise, obeying the law, doing what the authorities say, authorities, promulgating your own slave-values to your children, and so on. You're a slave, and their dream of a new racemixed society combined with a rise in their property evaluation is more important to anyone who matters, than your life is.