A do-no-harm principle would work better in this case. The starkest example of this is related to public works, where there is a need to prioritise either the welfare function of public works or the asset creation function. Creating assets efficiently and effectively requires a higher level of planning and expenditure on capital assets (machinery) and staff (engineers), which reduces the amount of programme funding available for wage transfers. Frequently, attempts to navigate this trade-off result in a sub-optimal scenario where the quality of public works is very poor.