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Aren't the olympics going to be in Paris in 2024? I agree in general that olympic events are often colossal boondoggles and pure vanity projects wasting money t
by atlasunshrugged 5y ago
Aren't the olympics going to be in Paris in 2024? I agree in general that olympic events are often colossal boondoggles and pure vanity projects wasting money that could go to citizens but I'm not sure it's fair to characterize the olympics as having no cache anymore (that said, viewership seems like it's abysmal this year and in general in decline over years). Also, never heard the categorization of "polite countries" before... not really sure how to feel about that one; I haven't spent much times in the Stans but have spent a lot of time in former soviet bloc countries and many of the people there are much more "polite" than W. EU/US.
- dylan604 5y ago>pure vanity projects wasting money that could go to citizens would it though? seems like a different vanity project would be found instead rather than what you would wish it be used. if the people financially supporting these types of boondoggles wanted to be doing citizens work, they would be doing it already and not be no Olympics to support. also to not be overlooked, some of these might be doing both already. Edit: Whooboy, the grammar in this one ;-)
- atlasunshrugged 5y agoHa, indeed could vs. would is a great point and you are probably correct that if a country is already willing not to spend the money on citizens directly for non-vanity projects, it's quite possible that even without the olympics they would do the same with something else but also without the olympics they don't get to use that veneer of shiny international credibility and attention to get internal stakeholder buy-in for the project which feels like it probably makes some difference although how much probably depends on the society in question.