4 ms·

What's the point in singling out sports entertainment? Apple cleared $100bb predominately selling consumer electronics, should everyone who bought an iPad feel

What's the point in singling out sports entertainment? Apple cleared $100bb predominately selling consumer electronics, should everyone who bought an iPad feel bad for not donating that $600 to cancer research? Facebook just threw a billion around on a photo sharing company. Microsoft just threw a billion so it could acquire some more patent ammunition. Everyday billions and billions of dollars are thrown around to buy all sorts of things, who gets to decide what spending is "right" and what's "wrong?"

noonespecial 15y ago
Heh.. Perhaps you might use an apple computer to help cure cancer and you probably wouldn't use a football? >who gets to decide what spending is "right" and what's "wrong?" None. Noone. Perhaps not wrong. Interesting though. Sorry guys, guess I kind of ran this one right off the rails. We underspend on medical research proportionally. That was all. I just tried to pick something a little more interesting than the TSA to joust at this time.
- _delirium 15y ago
  Picking a few billion that sports makes rather than the lots more billion that tech makes feels a little like pandering to the crowd, though (we're geeks, stereotypically don't like sports and "jocks"). A more edgy question, given the audience, would be to ask why our priorities are such that we pump much more money into web startups than cancer research.
  - eli_gottlieb 15y ago
    Or, hell, why we pump more money into web startups than computer science research!
- bad_user 15y ago
  Perhaps some scientist gets a new idea while relaxing to a game of football ... you can't really predict what would happen to our society if you start playing around with priorities. Historically such decisions had awful consequences. Also sorting out the priorities of our society means getting rid of capitalism, and finding a new economic system that works better is (arguably) a harder problem than currying cancer.

noonespecial 15y ago

Heh.. Perhaps you might use an apple computer to help cure cancer and you probably wouldn't use a football? >who gets to decide what spending is "right" and what's "wrong?" None. Noone. Perhaps not wrong. Interesting though. Sorry guys, guess I kind of ran this one right off the rails. We underspend on medical research proportionally. That was all. I just tried to pick something a little more interesting than the TSA to joust at this time.

_delirium 15y ago
Picking a few billion that sports makes rather than the lots more billion that tech makes feels a little like pandering to the crowd, though (we're geeks, stereotypically don't like sports and "jocks"). A more edgy question, given the audience, would be to ask why our priorities are such that we pump much more money into web startups than cancer research.
- eli_gottlieb 15y ago
  Or, hell, why we pump more money into web startups than computer science research!
bad_user 15y ago
Perhaps some scientist gets a new idea while relaxing to a game of football ... you can't really predict what would happen to our society if you start playing around with priorities. Historically such decisions had awful consequences. Also sorting out the priorities of our society means getting rid of capitalism, and finding a new economic system that works better is (arguably) a harder problem than currying cancer.