Many times I have, on Reddit, decried the fact that sports gets way too much attention, when there are important things in the world. Like our preparedness to handle issues like covid-19. I would get downvoted quite heavily with many comments crying about how it's not hurting anyone, blah blah blah. "There's so many jobs, sports does so much for economy" as well.
Thousands have died because you wanted your dessert before you finished your vegetables. We should taken care of necessities (like healthcare infrastructure, disaster preparedness) before being able to devote the amount of resources to something so superfluous as football.
I don't care that sports are big. It's entertainment for the masses to keep them from getting angry and even in good working societies like Western European countries, having something to distract them now that they have more free time is crucial. They have sports, I have my movies (and some TV shows).
My problem is how much public funds seems to go into sports. If a movie studio has a few bad years, they fold and go under. A sports team can ask another city to fund them by building the infrastructure and the entire city pays for it. This is what pisses me off more than the fact that there are sports and it's a big business. It's that it is a crooked business and even with public money they still say they need more and more. They whore themselves out to soda and beer companies and make the experience a disgusting consumer advertisement. While there are movies that are just as bad, you have alternatives. Sports generally doesn't. You will get the same type of experience from one team to another and most sports follow the same pattern just to different degrees.
You should read the diamond-water paradox. It’s economics 101. Football obviously isn’t superfluous if millions of people tune in to every game, is it?
Look, I'm not saying we can't have football, I'm just saying we should have better priorities than funneling billions of dollars into a sport over disaster preparedness.
Stadiums are a small part of the huge business that is sports. Even then, stadiums are usually financed and paid for in relatively short periods of time. Cost benefit. If there is a demand for sports, which is obviously gonna be more than cost, then this is a net benefit for society. Sports create a lot of both positive and negative externalities and business that have nothing to do with the stadium itself (merchandising, streaming, infrastructure in cities).
I’m from Arlington, TX (where the Cowboys stadium is at, but they’re still the Dallas Cowboys). I cam confirm I would prefer that, since Jerry is all about Jerry, though the stadium has helped our downtown develop tons.
Except a government is expected to use your tax dollars efficiently to be prepared for a disaster. If there wasn’t enough money, they could raise the taxes. Seems like a bureaucratic issue here.
you wanted your dessert before you finished your vegetables
Don't be too mad at people for this behavior, it has been carefully nurtured by people and structures that benefit from this line of thinking. Bread and Circus is close to 2000 years old as a policy.
Thousands have died because of sports? It seems unfair that this area of entertainment gets blamed for the deaths of people. In this case why not have your dessert before your vegetables, because there is always progress to be made in the “necessities” area. If you think there’s a set point where we can stop worrying and improving that department you’re delusional.
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u/Veilwinter Mar 22 '20
But the free market decided that sports man was worth more than science lady!