A firm that makes expenditures to self-construct a building treats the expenditures as an asset. When that same firm makes research and development expenditures to create a new patented technology, it must treat the expenditures as an expense. When that same firm makes expenditures to create computer software for eventual sale to customers, it might treat some of those expenditures as an asset and some as an expense. Explain U.S. GAAP’s rationale for the different treatment of these expenditures.