That was not my claim. The other member childishly made the claim that it's "money well spent," not I. He made the claim; he needs to back it up. Ask him if he thinks it's a good financial use of our national treasure. Maybe he will share with you the case that makes it be money well spent.
Is spending money on medical care well spent when it saves your life or the life of ones you love? No financial returns but damn sure money well spent.
Is spending money on medical care well spent when it saves your life or the life of ones you love? No financial returns but damn sure money well spent.
As a matter of fact, yes, spending money to keep me alive is money well spent because so far, I've paid far more in income, property, sales and other taxes, along with the business revenue/profits I've generated for my own firm and my clients' firms, to more than justify my being kept alive, working and contributing to the national GDP and government coffers. So, yes, there're very significant financial returns from spending money on my medical care. The same can be said of my children. My wife died ages ago, but the same was so of her 'til the day she passed though the charitable trust established in her name continues to provide economic returns and benefits its beneficiaries in the community.
So, seeing as rather than present an actual economically meritorious and rigorous defense of the claim the other member made (admittedly it's his claim to defend, not yours), and seeing as you won't exhibit the intellectual integrity of demanding the other member defend his claim, you want to make the matter personal....yes, there is a very fine business case for saving my life.
There have been a positive case for doing so from the first year I opened my own firm in the late '80s and showed a first year profit of just under $1M. I grew my firm annually thereafter into a 50 person organization that over the course of ~30 years produced handsome returns for me, my partners, my staff, my clients, the other firms with which I partnered on various projects, and the taxing jurisdictions to whom we all paid various forms of tax. That track record continued unbroken right up through the most recent decade of my life whereupon I sold my firm to a larger competitor and joined the ranks of its senior partners. The value of my contributions to my community and country continue the present even as I've taken on a part-time role in anticipation of retiring soon.
Though upon my full retirement the business case will diminish somewhat, I'll still be among the segment of society that pays the most taxes and contributes the most to the nation's GDP. I doubt that will not be so for the rest of my life. It would take my suffering a catastrophic and very prolonged illness for it ever to be so that there is no positive business case for keeping me alive.
Does any of that make me the most important person around? Of course not. It merely makes me be someone who knows quite well what I have contributed to my family, my city, my community of friends and associates and to my country. It makes me someone who knows damn well that I am no burden on society, and it makes me someone who has a legitimate and material stake in our society. Because I do have such a place in American society, I actually give a damn about what people think of the U.S., and it makes me give a damn when I see my countrymen making pitiably specious claims based on BS they just happen to think is so, but that they can't back up with one bit of credible evidence,
i.e., a sound case for their belief. It makes me someone who has the right to expect that when someone has something to say they know what they are talking about or that they sit down, shut up and take notes while people who do know what they are talking about have a mature and substantive discussion.
You see, public policy and discussions about it are not matters of blind faith as is religious belief. It's about how a polity manages its affairs, their own affairs and those of their countrymen, the affairs of people's lives. If one lacks the will or wherewithal to develop very well informed views that one can substantiate with a rigorous case, then one should at the very least simply have the decency to demure from the discussion rather than contribute to an echo chamber of lies, falsehoods, half-truths and misunderstandings. If one isn't willing to step up and in some small way -- even that of just participating in a adult and intellectually and discursively responsible way in the discussions on USMB -- in some small way to be part of the solution, then at least refrain from being part of the problem by either keeping one's unfounded conjecture to oneself or admitting that one doesn't really have any sound basis for the thoughts one expresses, for the mere popularity of an idea, the quantity of "likes" or laughs one receives, is no indicator of whether it's any good.
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Now as goes the line of discussion that other member introduced......If the government is going to spend my money, your money and everyone else's, there'd better be a positive economic case for doing so. I asked the member to present his case for his thoughts, and the fact is that he has none. He has only what he believes. Well, that's nice, but sound public policy does not derive from beliefs, it derives from strong economic cases that have highly plausible bases for it not being a waste of taxpayer resources.
I can't tell you why the member doesn't have a case he can present in support of his claim. I suspect it's because he's made no real effort to truly understand the matter. I can tell you that I've not seen any strong arguments showing there to be actual economic benefits associated with building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. It may be that the other member has seen such a case, but I doubt it as he's not shared any such thing.
I doubt, however, that he'll develop his own or find someone else's credible economic case for building such a wall for both liberal and
conservative thinkers (hear also:
David Bier discusses President Trump's border wall proposal on WWL’s First News with Tommy Tucker) and economists have resoundingly shown the wall is an absurdly bad use of yours, my and other taxpayers' money it the interest of stemming the tide of illegal immigration.
Even a U.S. Major in his master's thesis wrote/found,
The US-Mexico border fence has only a limited deterrent effect against a terrorist, and that deterrent effect appears to be fleeting, even against illegal immigrants motivated solely by economic conditions and opportunities. Additionally, the fence does not have a significant defeat effect against a terrorist....Apprehension data from the US-Mexico border and simulated border crossings indicate that a border fence would not deter terrorists attempting to cross the border; they would only be influenced in deciding where to cross.
Quite simply, the case isn't there, but in the interest of giving the other member an opportunity to present one, I asked for one, only to be met with childishness. As a result, I don't have anything more to say to him; he has ceased to exist as far as I'm concerned.
Oh....and lest I forget, get personal with me again, and it'll be the last I see of you.