NOTHING will ever be "adequately funded"

"Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way: nothing will ever be “adequately funded.” In pretty much any circumstance, someone somewhere will have at least some idea of what else they could do with an extra dollar or two. The fact that they have to forsake something because they have limited resources means that, in their eyes, the problem is simply that the world is not 'adequately funding' whatever initiative [they] think is important.
    "There is a subtle social danger here: it is easy, therefore, to think that social problems are not because we face unavoidable trade-offs but because bad people out there have the wrong values ...
    "Roads and schools could always be better. People could always be healthier. Blaming problems on inadequate funding stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that trade-offs exist and are inevitable. When someone says they have 'inadequate funding' what they really mean is, 'I could do a little more of what I find important if I had a little more money.'
    "There are four problems. First, people can always do something with a little more money... Second, funds for one thing can’t be used for another... Third, [what I find important isn't necessarily what anyone else cares about at all. [Fourth,] even when a cause is adequately funded–or at least funded well enough to win a particular crusade, it usually doesn’t dissolve but moves on to a different crusade ...
    "We shouldn’t blame problems on 'inadequate funding' ... people will always be able to think of something else to do with the next dollar."

~ Art Carden from his post 'NOTHING is "Adequately Funded"'