"Throwing money at the problem"

I'm getting a little tired of hearing people say, "You can't fix a problem by throwing money at it." It's usually an excuse for people who don't want to do something. But name me a problem, other than simply changing your mind about something, that doesn't require money? Even if you can get enough people to volunteer their time (God bless them), you still need to buy materials for them to use and transport them to where the problem is. And there is only so much time people can donate before they have to stop and go to a job to make a living. And I think that is a lot of the problem with people who say, "You can't solve a problem by throwing money at it," have - they don't want to pay a fair amount to get something done.

The other possibility of why someone would say this is that they mean, "You can't solve a problem by ONLY throwing money at it." I'd agree with that but I've never heard anyone say that. It usually comes from someone who is against spending (often by the government) on something they don't want. But all of the conservatives out West who don't want the government to spend money are sure glad the government spent all that money on irrigation and dam building long ago. They are certainly happy the government subsidized the railroads and built the Interstate Highway System. Likewise, you'll often hear liberals complain about "throwing money" at something they don't agree with - new equipment for the police or the military or exploration of space or the oceans.

First of all, we need to have a discussion about whether something is a problem. Then, if it is, we have to have a discussion about how to solve it. Then, if you've decided to fix it and how you're going to fix it, prepare for the throwing of money! It's going to take a lot of it.