232
If the Olympics were permanently canceled, nothing of value would be lost.
(moist.catsweat.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
232 points (78.9% liked)
Unpopular Opinion
6216 readers
3 users here now
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
- If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
- If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Sometimes I feel this way too, most of the competitions don't interest me much.
One benefit that does happen is it spurs mass public transit expansion (Peertube version) big time in the host city. The sheer volume of athletes and visitors to one area means that your usual 1 hour or more commutes on already congested roads aren't going to cut it.
This event makes a city/country get off their ass, stop being complacent. It makes a convincing case for deficit spending to meet public infrastructure needs, which are so often neglected when left alone.
It makes the public go into massive debt for the benefit of corporations who make bank. It leaves the city with a dozen world-class sports venues that will never ever be used to their capacity again and which the host city will be unable to maintain, but which they paid for with public money.
What you're saying is true, there is definitely corruption, useless building and parking and unequal wealth transfer that happens with the Games in its host cities.
However, my point is that there is a subset of that built infrastructure that does eventually see its capacity realized again, and that's mass public transit. It's easy to see the value of that infrastructure in hindsight, but many politicians and residents are skiddish about making the short and long term investments needed to provide transportation services and meet future movement needs of a population. The Olympics provide a guarantee that the infrastructure will be used even for just a few weeks, which help quell fears that the transit spending would be wasted money. Seeing that we still benefit from transit infrastructure built for that short event, should make people see that transit investment is valuable for all of us.
pfff spotted Reece
I wish I was a Reece Martin alt account, hehe.
I thought I was joking but that is something that ONLY Reece would say.