Thousands, perhaps millions of noise victims complain, and many protest to local officialdom. We cannot begin to estimate the cost in energy expended organizing, writing Letters to the Editor, badgering City Hall, petitioning, suing, picketing, and pursuing the noisemaker. This all takes time, and time is money.
City Hall and the noisemaker have found it costs money to reply, to placate. Contractors sometimes assign someone to cope with the protests; the FAA operates a number of local noise abatement offices; politicians must take time out to help constituents. It would have been less costly to install quality mufflers and sound barriers around the compressors and quiet the jackhammers, than to spend time and man-hours to contain the USANAA.
As we continue probing the new concept of environmental quality we will discover that the total cost of excessive noise is something society cannot afford.