Compare war, disasters, disease, and cyberattacks in one risk table, and publish it as the basis for defense budgets

The proposal in detail

This proposal gathers every threat to a society's safety into one "overall risk table" and makes it the shared basis for deciding how much to spend on protection. It covers armed attack from other countries, terrorism, cyberattacks that shut down electricity, water, and hospitals, major earthquakes and floods, large disease outbreaks, cuts in food and energy supplies, and even slow-moving dangers such as climate change. For each one, the table assesses how likely it is and how large the impact would be on lives, livelihoods, and essential services, over several time frames, from within a few years to several decades ahead, and it gives not only numbers but also how solid the evidence is. The table is prepared by a permanent body in which offices responsible for the military, disaster response, health, and communications take part together with outside experts, and an agency independent of the government checks its methods. A public version is issued regularly. Details that would give hints to an attacker are withheld, but the names of the withheld items are shown, and a body such as a legislative committee, bound by a duty to keep secrets, can check what was held back. In budget documents, the government states which danger in the table each item of spending on defense, disaster response, public health, and cyber defense is meant for, and when the assessment and the allocation differ greatly, the government explains why. However, the table is not a formula that sets the budget automatically, and the final decision is made by bodies chosen in elections. When a sudden crisis changes an assessment greatly, the table is updated without waiting for the regular review.