Startup Idea : Profitability-based public sector accounting

Because of austerity, Southern Europe has seen a dramatic lack of investment, giving rise to youth unemployment of close to 50% in a country such as Greece. Public sector investment is seen as impossible because public sector accounting completely focuses on a single point of measurement: deficit. In the private sector, no accountant would say that a company is badly run if it spends more money than it receives: it is probably simply investing. A similar approach should become common for governments. The solution is simple: quantify the business case for public investments and judge them accordingly. In quite some cases, public investment, such as roads, railways, (renewable) energy, isolating buildings, etc., is actually profitable. In these cases, such spending should not be accounted as spending, but as investment and made possible by EU, rating agencies, investors, etc. In all cases, public sector spending should be judged not only on political merits, but also on expected financial returns, and the combination of the two is what should determite the final decision and also the credit worthyness of the state in question.