Irresponsible speculation is irresponsible. Balanced portfolio management including some speculation based on understood risks is exactly what the government (and private citizens) should be doing.
You asked why not spend it at home but that is speculation too - who’s to say we can improve domestic education by spending money? Or healthcare for that matter? Who’s to say cutting interest rates will promote spending or that any government action will have the desried effect? Everything short of putting your money under the mattress is a gamble - all I look for is a government capable of soberly assessing the risks, constructing a responsible portfolio and reviewing it dispassionately. I find this one pretty close.
For what it’s worth I have not seen any government statements making light of the this expenditure or any other - that may be the flavor you choose to put on it but that is your choice…
I agree, which leads us back to my original question… What is the anticipated ROI on this particular $1M “investment” and when do we anticipate that it’ll be realized?
Remember…I’m not the one characterizing this particular expenditure as an “investment”.
You asked why not spend it at home but that is speculation too
I asked why we’re better off spending it to fund a program for Palestinians rather than spending it in a similar manner domestically.
Assuming both are equally risky investments, there are additional economic benefits to spending the money domestically. What offsets those benefits such that we expect a better overall return by giving the money to the Palestinians?
I agree, which leads us back to my original question… What is the anticipated ROI on this particular $1M “investment” and when do we anticipate that it’ll be realized?
Remember…I’m not the one characterizing this particular expenditure as an “investment”.
I am but I am trying very hard to point out that unless you like to invest all your eggs in one basket there is very little point in banking on an ROI from one investment or you’d never do anything. I have $100 to invest and am faced with 10 opportunities each may pay out 20x my investment but has a 10% chance of success. To make it simple there numbers are exact. If I don’t want to have a portfolio I do nothing because I don’t want to risk my $100 on one investment with a 90% chance of losing it. If I give every investment $10 I get back $200 regardless which was the “right” investment.
Point being speculating on one investment may be irresponsible, building a portfolio of risky investments IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE RISKS AND SPECULATE AN AMOUNT YOU CAN AFFORD is fine. If you reallly want to come up with an ROI - you seem fixated on it - divide the ROI of the portfolio by the number of investments - 10% in my example
What offsets those benefits such that we expect a better overall return by giving the money to the Palestinians?
Stability in an area of the world sufficient to allow US companies to invest and make a profit where they might not otherwise have done so?
I don’t know about the terms of the scholarship but maybe extending an opportunity to live and pay tax in the US to people capable of creating economic opportunities here?
Creating a generation of leaders with a conciliatory attitude to Israel and by extension the US avoiding some of the huge aid payments that we currently make?
Addressing negative international perception of the U.S.'s to date one sided position on the conflict?
THese may be gibberish - they are of the top of my head but I’m surprised you can’t think of any possible benefits to the US, economic or otherwise from pursuing this course…
Sure, it could be a good thing. But the fact of the matter is, it’s not our country to rebuild. We (the American taxpayers) should not be paying to rebuild a country that is not ours.
Lets get back all the money and military support we gave to Israel… with interest.
I am but I am trying very hard to point out that unless you like to invest all your eggs in one basket there is very little point in banking on an ROI from one investment or you’d never do anything.
Now we really disagree. Just because you’re appropriately diversified in your investments, doesn’t mean that you can’t, or shouldn’t have an expectation of a positive return from each and every individual position that you hold. Certainly, you won’t always get it, but the expectation should be there, and with appropriate due diligence, you should be successful far more often than not.
While you’re right that speculative investing will involve far greater risks, to speculate without the same due dilligence is, as you so rightly stated, irresponsible…and speculative or not, diversification alone doesn’t justify such irresponsibility, especially when you have to justify the investment or capital expenditure to a board of directors or, as in this case, the people who have placed their trust in you to manage their assets appropriately.
Indeed we do. There are plenty of people out there making a great living investing in entities that they do not believe have a more than 50% chance of ever being profitable because the potential upside is adequate and they make multiple investments. Sure they’re going to try and invest in the companies with a 40% chance rather than a 1% chance and may do a lot of due diligence to try and differentiate the two but the idea that sensible investing requires you only pull the trigger on opportunities that represent a more than 50% chance is patently false.
I don’t know how much due diligence was done on this program but I am willing to believe the government has a better grasp on the “ROI” of investment in a broad programme of individually risky foreign education programmes than you or I do so, for now I’ll let them run with it. If in four years it appears spending in this area has gone up unjustifiably or the investment hasn’t paid off then you vote but it’s surely premature to pass judgement now?
If someone told me he’d given their last $50 to a spotty teenager in Seattle who was good with computers I’d be tempted to call them a mug. If that same someone told me that they had a great portfolio already, had studied the market, and believed that a good investment for a small portion of their funds would be in seed capital to start-up software companies (one of whom happened to be that same spotty teenager) I’d bite my tongue in case it turned out to be BIll Gates.