The fallacy of value
"It only takes avoiding one loss for this to be worth it."
This is the same fallacious logic behind any big-government program. It is the fallacious assumption that any amount of money we spend justifies the noble goal of "saving lives". It gets applied to a lot of other things as well, like education, etc. It is the fallacious assumption that anything short of a complete boondoggle indicates a lack of desire to do anything about the problem. And frequently, the problem that these logic-devoid proponents want to address isn't the real problem at all but merely the ever-present red herring.
I for one am tired of paying for fishing expeditions (pun intended).
This is the same fallacious logic behind any big-government program. It is the fallacious assumption that any amount of money we spend justifies the noble goal of "saving lives". It gets applied to a lot of other things as well, like education, etc. It is the fallacious assumption that anything short of a complete boondoggle indicates a lack of desire to do anything about the problem. And frequently, the problem that these logic-devoid proponents want to address isn't the real problem at all but merely the ever-present red herring.
I for one am tired of paying for fishing expeditions (pun intended).
The "if it saves even only child" argument is so old even the average person who's not into skepticism or debate hears that and knows it's nonsense.
I like the way you put it: "the fallacious assumption that anything short of a complete boondoggle indicates a lack of desire to do anything about the problem"