I've seen it estimated both ways, but the most compelling argument I've seen is that it is a small net drain.

What proportion of initiatives has been simply unachievable, futile or a net drain?

Although OTB is losing money on its betting operations, it is still not a net drain on the city's budget.

Foreign investment totaled $6.3 billion in the first quarter, Mr. Kasyanov said, compared with a net drain of $1 billion a month a year earlier.

That's a net drain on the tax base.

Q. Are trade-agreement critics justified in saying such agreements - Nafta, for example - have caused a net drain in American jobs?

Draftees with less than two years' retention were said to be a net drain on military resources providing insufficient benefit to offset overhead costs of using them.

The net drain on the holodeck's power allotment was relatively small.

What's more, the endowment tends to be an overall net drain on most universities.

Although the Soviet Union was the world's second leading agricultural producer and ranked first in the production of numerous commodities, agriculture was a net drain on the economy.