 Economic analysis has a straightforward explanation of the objective standard in the law of negligence: because tort liability is exclusively a matter of providing incentives for future conduct, the fact that the defendant was not in a position to avoid a particular injury is irrelevant. Economic analysis views injuries in the past as “sunk costs” which can never be recovered. Making an injurer pay for an injury that efficient precautions would have avoided will provide the same incentive even if the specific injurer did not realize precautions were required.