You also need to look at the costs of not fixing infrastructure.

It's not tax deals alone that make a place attractive to do business.

There is an estimated $2 trillion, some estimate $4 trillion is cash sitting offshore waiting to be repatriated.

The Wall as a symbol is OK but the effectiveness of such walls is not great. Even the heavily guarded Berlin wall was not 100% effective.

And this money all belongs to the Govt

Could just end the war on drugs, probably cheaper and more effective

Of course not 100%. It will require supplemental changes in immigration and border control procedures. But it certainly can be enough for its intent and purpose. Just like you have a lock on your door at home.

Yep, just remember, the wall isn't about keeping the drugs out, it's about keeping mexicans out.

At the moment, repatriation tax is 35%. They could probably bring that money in at about 15%. He can also incentivize use of it for infrastructure.

The thing with all endeavors, there certainly are issues and roadblocks that arise. Most business people know this. But its not like you have to sit there, stare at it and cry. You solve it. So its a matter of will to complete it.

I don't believe that to be true at all. The wall will have doors for entry. It's about proper processes for entering and exiting the country.

You mean like those border points that already exist?

How tall is this wall going to be that will make it more effective than the existing fencing?

Its very pourous at the moment. It some places, its just a shrub of grass.

I haven't seen what they have planned. I'm confident they will put some thought to it.

Which does a fantastic job at keeping people from coming through your door willy-nilly but, as they have said with "proper immigration measures" in the wake of Brexit, the tightened borders will just stop all and sundry entering the country via conventional means.

Anyone with a serious agenda won't let piddly border checks (or in this case, a wall) stop them, if they REALLY want to get into the country.

About 18" or so. It's more symbolic than anything.

How much do you think it will cost? To be effective, and not just a huge symbolic waste of money

I heard estimates of between $5B and $20B. There is about $550B in annual trade with Mexico. How they structure the revenue stream is yet to be seen. It can potentially even make money for Mexico and the US.

Trade is a particularly useless figure for measuring anything on.

If Donald and Carlos Slim sold each other a billion dollar plane once a day, then US-Mexico trade would get a $730bn boost.

What’s US religion worth?

http://religionnews.com/2016/09/14/w...e-demographer/

Full study here (including numbers on social programs, hospitals):

http://www.religjournal.com/pdf/ijrr12003.pdf

Apparently, church spending starts when government spending ends.

Actually, there is another way of thinking about it. Government investing in local construction industry -> government contracts / profits, jobs / incomes, everybody wins...

Good enough to keep out the small criminals.

The fervent obsession with religion in the US makes sense when you read those kind of figures. It has woven itself into the very fabric of society. If you're not a god-botherer in the US you're a nobody.

They can't be financially supporting all those areas of the community without some kind of religious agenda keeping the myth alive among the flock.