guy, no reason to be a smart ass. It really doesn't aid in discussion, as it serves to insult rather than educate. If it makes you feel better, I feel small now, and duly insulted.

Anyway, I do see that you missed my point and we have begun and argument based of trivialities. you're playing a game of analyzing my words rather than reading my message. This serves no purpose, since i garner that we probably wish the same thing for our city in terms of helping people. Maybe i'm wrong and you're just being insulting for its own sake.
either way, I apologize for not being the wordsmith you seem to require.

To believe that the city makes back the money they put into social serices is beyond my comprehension. do you think this can put the city in the black? I use the words "return of zero" to express "net" rather than "gross". If you were not just looking to disagree, you could have easily seen that, rather than attempt to engage in a semantical argument. I don't believe there is one page of data to represent this because it is completely accepted that there is no net profit in social services. that is not their point. They are not a business and do not generate profit/loss statments as such. The budget of the department of human services is around 50 million a year. I don't believe that human services track the stats of people no longer utilizing their funds. Do you believe that the taxes generated from these programs equal 50 million?

To think that one can become a brain surgeon from city funded schools and social programs is also incomprehensible to me. perhaps you know of programs i don't, and perhaps they should be more well know to the general public. perhaps the 50% of public school kids that actually manage to graduate from dc schools could utilize these.
for info on schools and money in dc, i point you to the information here:
dcedublog.blogspot.com/
there is a lot of info there, and you are free to puruse what you'd like.

or perhaps you were,again just arguing sematics rather than substance. if that is the case, you are right, my wording wasn't comprehensive enough.

for economic impact of the stadium go here:
app.cfo.dc.gov/services/fiscal_impact/search.asp

i not sure why you say I'm likely so proud of the welfare to work program. moot, really.

you seem to indicate that i have changed positions. Have I? i believe i'm still saying that a dollar for dollar comparision is not an equivalent comparison.

are you really interested in this discussion, or just having an argument?